Jamo, US Fuel has the Octane level of water (not really but you get where this is going), so to generate the same power as 1litre capacity western European engine with a compression ration of ~10.5:1 running on 95 RON, in USA using 87 AKI (~ 91 RON) with reduced compression ratio of 9.5:1 (or lower) to cope with the lower octane fuel, they end up requiring a capacity 25% or more over the European engine. Scaled up, USA engines sound lazy and give the impression of the only suitable for long distance driving.

When living on Continental Europe, bigger distances are driven, usually only limited by change of local language, and higher price of fuel.