Chris22, you are right that European cars generally have smaller engines and less equipment.
Indeed. Very few of the Audis in the UK appear to be fitted with indicators, for example.
There's been a bit of press about dangers of PCP recently, but I find it hard to get too concerned about it. I think around 75% of new car finance deals were PCP last year, but as people don't actually own the cars and the term is typically 2 or 3 years, the amount that individuals potentially owe is limited - unlike a HP agreement, or credit card debt. It's a fixed term lease rather than a loan. And losing your car doesn't generally lead to loss of job, home and spouse here. There is public transport and people share lifts...
Most of the finance comes from the car companies themselves and I'd say the danger is that they end up with a lot of unwanted 2-3 year old cars to sell elsewhere in the world and that their new sales take a big hit, not that they go bust under the weight of bad loans. We're not at the 2007 point where the likes of GM were huge finance operations with a small manufacturing concern attached.
A company car isn't particularly tax efficient. It was in the past, but not today and I would say most businesses who offer them tend to actually provide a monetary allowance rather than a car. (Fewer than a million company cars last year according to HMRC figures.)