>cars sold in U.S. cannot be imported to EU due to them failing safety regulations.

This is not a bad thing.

Living in the third world, there are "exclusive" cars here from big manufacturers too; but they aren't available in EU because they're 0/5 safety rated tin cans. I keep an eye out if a car is "only" sold in the global south and avoid it like the plague.

I have heard of the reverse occurring as well, EU cars which need modification to be road legal and not from "steering wheel on the wrong side" issues. I believe one example were smartcars ironically failing emissions tests. The point being incompatibility may be mutual.