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Americans seem to equate German cars with prestige?
But why? Mercedes has a terrible reliablity record by any standard, BMW still not on par with Honda or Toyota when it comes to reliablity. Audi still lags and VW pure garbage.
When I was in Europe I saw so many Mercedes used as taxis. LOL!
when I lived in Florida I know that the heat and humidity caused my VW to breakdown a couples times. I don’t think german cars where intended to be used in 100°F 100% humidity.
I'm not a huge Mercedes fan and have never owned one, but I'll happily compare differences in American and German cars that I have owned.
Steering and pedal feel is something that has always been superior in the European cars I've owned. The Americans just can't seem to get this right, ever. Since it's the connection from machine to human, it's really important to the driving experience that it's right. It's almost always superior in German cars.
Like I said before, design. Design is subjective, admittedly. I work in design, and everything - right down to the fonts on the instrument clusters - is done really tastefully in German cars.
Interior quality is almost always better. Look at VW. You compare a VW interior to something in one of the big 3's comparable models and there's no match. Chevy actually dissected a Jetta to take cues to improve their own interiors, which resulted in some mixed results. I think their interiors have come some way, but the design and build quality is still behind Europeans overall.
I will say American cars seem to have surpassed German cars in reliability and certainly have a lower cost of ownership. I would never buy a VW again. I had a 2007 and it was really finicky. Fun and well-designed, but too many problems.
Again, this is a very subjective issue - so if you're not convinced, you never will be. But the general public is attracted to German cars, and there's reason for that. It's not just the quality of the advertising, because every car sold in America has an American ad agency division behind it.
driving a car in North America is based on pilotage.
Bash on the VW's folks, and I'll just keep driving my 03' Jetta diesel and keep getting 51+ mpg!!!! Runs great, only thing ever done besides regular oil change and fuel filter every now and then is a timing belt ( which needed to be changed at 75k)... Is cozy, comfortable, drives great in all weather conditions, etc......
Not a elitist Prius or Volt or any other "green" car can touch the mileage of this thing. Unfotunately the only GOOD VW diesels are the 02'-03's before the Americans got their hands on them and made them get worse gas mileage so their POS's look better on the sticker for mpg......
Just giving my experience of one of the best cars I've ever owned!!
Bash on the VW's folks, and I'll just keep driving my 03' Jetta diesel and keep getting 51+ mpg!!!! Runs great, only thing ever done besides regular oil change and fuel filter every now and then is a timing belt ( which needed to be changed at 75k)... Is cozy, comfortable, drives great in all weather conditions, etc......
Not a elitist Prius or Volt or any other "green" car can touch the mileage of this thing. Unfotunately the only GOOD VW diesels are the 02'-03's before the Americans got their hands on them and made them get worse gas mileage so their POS's look better on the sticker for mpg......
Just giving my experience of one of the best cars I've ever owned!!
I had a 2005 Rabbit TDI Comfortline and yes it had a great mileage too and drove good.
I have a pristine looking 2001 BMW z3'3.0i, hubby got it for me 2yr ago. It's my toy. It has 127k,miles & a whole lotta life left in her. This little thing, if well maintained, can have a life up to 500k miles. It looks expensive, it wasn't, which is why I didn't fight him on his insistence when he saw it. New $60k, my car, $7k . Mist a fantastic car, very very minor fixes, had it in the shop last summer before our first long road trip, $200 later all is well, codes checked & all (there were none). Nine of my other cars have been so stylish & incredibly fun to drive. BMW did the roadster well, it's that simple.
For driving feel ,reliability and keeping maintence costs reasonable the low end "entry" BMW Mercedes Audi... models are hard to beat, Audi A3 BMW1 and such. leave off the all the expensive high end tech stuff as that is mostly what breaks.
The tech stuff is pretty cool though if you can afford it. Used high end BMW and Mercedes are often aavailable here in Germany quite cheap because of the high maintence costs. I think more than half of the big new MBs Audis and BMWs on the road here are leased company cars so no one is really worried about the resale. I work (IT) in the Mercedes Global logistics Center and sometimes at the truck factory and every now and then in the bus and Sprinter Factorys :-). I drive an A class for work and was considering paying the 1% to use it as privatly but as a sailor, windsurfer, and rock climber I want something wich holds more stuff, probably get an Opel Combo Citroen Berlingo or so.
Only diesel.
Grüß aus Germersheim
Americans seem to equate German cars with prestige?
But why? Mercedes has a terrible reliablity record by any standard, BMW still not on par with Honda or Toyota when it comes to reliablity. Audi still lags and VW pure garbage.
When I was in Europe I saw so many Mercedes used as taxis. LOL!
German cars are very cool and there is a different feel to the driving experience, even the VW's.
I'm not all in on German cars, but I do respect them. I have a 2004 VW Passat my son drives and a 2009 VW Jetta my wife drives and to be honest-we haven't had any problems with them other than the maintenance which I believe is too expensive but not that out of line with other cars.
I drive a 2009 Nissan Rogue that I absolutely love.
Would I have chosen VW's for myself? Probably not but my wife works hard and these are the cars she wanted.
TCA,
From what I've read, the 02'-03 TDI VW's were exempt from any smog accessories in the US. After 03' the imported VW's in to the USA had to have more emissions "garbage" put on them...
Personally I would not have chosen a VW TDI at the time we did, but my neighbor owned it and sold it to us with 40k miles on it and $1500 under wholesale price( he is very wealthy and didn't care)!!!! We took the chance and scored big time with a good car!!!
I guess its a perception that predates Japanese Imports. Mercedes before 1990 was good quality, Jaguar before 1970. I always thought VW was viewed as a budget brand in the USA, comparable to Yugo or some of the other eastern european manufacturers.
I guess its a perception that predates Japanese Imports. Mercedes before 1990 was good quality, Jaguar before 1970. I always thought VW was viewed as a budget brand in the USA, comparable to Yugo or some of the other eastern european manufacturers.
You can't be serious or you are commenting on something you have no idea on. VW equal to a Yugo?
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. Mist a fantastic car, very very minor fixes, had it in the shop last summer before our first long road trip, $200 later all is well, codes checked & all (there were none). Nine of my other cars have been so stylish & incredibly fun to drive. BMW did the roadster well, it's that simple.
