During 1980s buying Mercedes was like buying a house - it was expensive, but if taken care, it could last you lifetime. Now it is just waste of money

Planned obsolescence. They literally design the product to last just about as long as the factory warranty. Plastic parts everywhere and an 'apple like' approach to repairability. Thats why the Japanese manufacturers outsell them (atleast outside Europe)

I am German and I am a mechanic. The last german Car I've owned was a 1991 BMW 525i. That car was almost indestructable. Sold it with almost half a million Km, just because it was to uneconomical. Means it was a car for long distance driving, which I do not have anymore. With newer BMWs I made the experience that you have to take apart half of the car just for minor repairs and don't dare to touch anything that is made of plastic in the engine bay. Especially coolant lines or flanges. After just a few years they get so brittle that they will break easily

My family is very proud and very tradition oriented. They have all only owned BMWs with very few exceptions. I broke tradition by buying a Toyota and I couldn't have been happier with my decision. I've seen the BMWs go to the repair shop over and over again for mechanical failures despite them being relatively new; meanwhile my 11 yr old Toyota has never had a single issue. Keep your status symbol vehicles, I'll go with the more practical options.

As an engineer, I think that when car manufacturers put plastic in very important parts like water pumps, they are shooting themselves in the foot for saving some money because "the market" and the "competition", in the long run the brands suffer because reputation falls. Car brands: Just listen the engineers! They know more about reliability than the marketing department.

I am Japanese born in 1974. My grandfather owned a 1973 w116 Mercedes. Compared to the Japanese cars of that time, I loved it for its perfect ride comfort and lean and elegant appearance. I think the Japanese thought that Mercedes at the time would be able to drive high quality forever if the parts were properly replaced. Golf and bmw were similarly deified. I want the old German cars back.

I work as a sound engineer in the US. I first learned on analog sound boards. Everything switch to digital sometime in the mid 2ks and has progressed further so that it’s hard to find analog boards. In the audio industry, reliability is way more important than feature sets. No one tolerates a concert being stopped in the middle, and having the sound engineer get on the mic and say ‘I have to reboot the sound board Sorry.’ The console manufactures debug these boards to the point where you can leave them on for weeks w/I problems. If you leave them on for a month, you have a problem. Why wouldn’t auto manufactures See the need to have a similar level of reliability? Seems like it’s more dangerous to be traveling at a high speed and have a computer crash, then it is to have a rock concert end early.

I live in the UK and drive mainly Honda and Toyotas. I love the design, performance, and particularly the refinement and interiors of German cars, and the heritage of engineering behind them. Unfortunately, what has happened is that manufacturers and their friends, the reviewers, have convinced us all that perceived quality is better than engineering quality, and the emphasis is now on appearance, and interior materials. Almost everybody I know with a German car (including my favourite Audi) has had issues with them. In my opinion, it's putting too many unnecessary systems and gadgets into them. That said, Lexus equip their cars well and the internal systems seem also to stand up to the test of time well.

I used to own a VW golf, when one of the parts broke i discovered it was made of plastic. The same part in a japanese car is made of metal and lasts the life of the car. From then on ive only owned Japanese cars. To me reliability means more than prestige. A car that goes for years and years and years with 0 worries? That's my idea of luxurious

Some brands need to realise that reliability is the most important aspect of luxury.

In the US German cars are seen as awesome, luxurious, and powerful, but also as endless money pits. They break down quickly and replacing the countless cheap plastic parts and other expensive components make them a subpar choice overall.

These companies today only care about making money for shareholders. Ferrari management was under the same pressure from its shareholders to increase the model range of Ferrari and produce a cheaper model to increase sales and profits. Ferrari said NO. They told their shareholders that the famous Italian brand was not going to be diminished in order to make a quick buck. Well done Ferrari!!

I did an internship in 2013 at a mercedes benz car dealer / workshop and was amazed how much plastic part are on these cars. Plastic clasps constantly broke and hat to be glued back on body parts. So when they say the made a new car lighter it basically means "we replaced as much metal with plastic as we could"

Before it was engineer driven now it's all about marketing and their shareholders. Planned obsolescence and perceived quality is now the norm.

"Planned obsolescence" is the name of the game. The manufacturers could not keep selling cars if they were so durable that the customers would not need to buy another one.

I owned a Mercedes 1973 SLC automatic in the late 90s for 5 years. Fantastic build quality and was very reliable. Recently, i bought a Mercedes estate which is full of endless niggles and problems and the interior is plasticky and lacks refinement as well. Will buy Japanese next. Had a couple of Mazda's before and they were faultless and fun to drive.

As a german automotive engineer I can say its not just their own choice, its also caused by a ton of regulation making the cars worse. Also managers and purchasing departments push for the cheapest options, making our products worse. The other big issue is the focus on unnecessary features and our current view of the number of features equal the luxuriousness. Love my 90s Mercedes btw

German cars have been declining steadily since about the time of reunification. Instead of sound, basic design and metalurgy/materials, they became gimmick laden, under-tested, 200k throw away garbage. Their salvation has been that every other manufacturer has followed the same path....

The article pretty much nailed it. German vehicles are full of new tech and that means some ironing out of bugs and figuring out best practices (of manufacturing). There is a reason Honda and Toyota are so reliable. They wait until tech is mastered before they introduce it in their vehicles. Mercedes = first with ABS, first with air bags, first with keyless entry, etc. But the real push to the latest tech came in the late 90s when BMW started to do the same. Around that time, Mercedes also merged with Chrysler...and sacrificed some durability for profits. That is why late 1990s to 2010 was a bad time for Mercedes. Tech is still a big thing with Mercedes/BMW/etc. and that means expensive repairs once out of warranty. Remember that cars depreciate with time/mileage...labor and parts DO NOT. That $100k German car will still cost like $100k German car when it comes time to service it.

There's a reason used German cars depreciate so hard. Once that warranty has ended they are ticking time bombs.

My father had an old Toyota which he drove to Yemen. It was used in a war. The car runs the same, it had bullets fired at it, explosions happening near it. We replaced the tyres, windshield and a broken wiper fluid and clutch fluid tanks. That's all. The engine, chasis, axle, suspensions all are the same. Shows how great the build quality is.

If you can’t afford a brand-new German made car, …you certainly can’t afford second-hand German made car.

As a German living in Japan, I got a Prius, and can only recommend going with Toyota as often as possible.

Up until the early 2000s, my father wouldn’t even consider buying anything other than a mercedes. He finally swithced to Toyota (Land cruiser and a Rav4). I grew up yearning to buy my own mercedes, which are still very attractive, but was turned off by the irreliability issues that everyone talks about. I am now a loyal Toyota customer, although i still think that mercedes offers a better ride/luxury/design quality.

I was a big VW fan in the 80’s as a teenager starting with the bug, Scirocco, Ghia, and GTI (1983-84). When I got out of college and could afford to buy my first car was a brand new off the showroom floor 1991 GTI. Long story short it started falling apart right away. Sold it within 2 years and I’ve never purchased another VW and probably never will. I’m in my late 50’s now and have always told that story and directed people towards more reliable brands. Build a solid car that will last well beyond the payments and your customers will sell your cars for you.

so, you are telling me according to j.d. power that land rovers and jaguars and jeeps are more reliable than most german car brands is hard to believe. i am still amazed that apparently alfa romeo which is known for horrible reliability is more reliable and better quality than audi. also this list suggests many American car manufacturers are more reliable than toyota which probably has the strongest image of reliability in the world.

My experience in German cars goes back to my 1959 NSU Prinz, very simple, outright crude, but technically a masterpiece. Today i have a VW CC approaching 15 years of age, and 150k miles. Most have been highway miles giving the vehicle a chance to warm up. Its been very reliable, with the exception of a few minor electrical problems ( ie: the pushbutton parking brake/ hill holder combination, and blowing up headlight bulbs when actuating the fog lamps or high beams.) But, im really dreading the day when something major goes, because of the complex nature of the vehicle, and excessive use of not necessarily cheap plastic parts on major systems, ( ie; oilpan, intake manifold, pcv valve with oil separator, etc.) Additionally, special distinct tools are needed for these cars in many cases. Therefore, i drive carefully, and maintenance is a priority, as well as the knowledge of how to do certain repairs without the need of a shop. A bit of praying and keeping ones fingers crossed can't hurt either!

The jd powers survey is fundamentally flawed. It is not the complaints in the first year that matter, it is the percentage of cars built in a model year that are still on the road which expose the quality cars and the junk

With my four cars Range Rover, Porsche Macan, Toyota Corolla and a 15 year old Nissan Micra, I do one thing, ignore the manufacturer service intervals and over service engine and gearbox, take and old fashion approach to regular check overs myself, whilst it doesn’t eliminate all issues they are reduced. Oh and the best car I ever owned 2008 Lexus RX450h, 400,000km fault free (but you all knew that)!

Mercedes of the past were designed and manufactured by the engineers and then the accountants figured out how much to sell it for. Now the accountants dictate how much to sell it for and the engineers have to design and manufacture it to that price point.

First day off the lot in a Volkswagen we had a dash light warning lol. It was the effing gas cap...

The mark 8 golf was VWs decline in my option. In the GTI, the fake carbon look tape is visible around the steering column, you can actually see the tape over-hanging

It’s not just reliability, it’s durability, longevity and most importantly the ability to maintain and repair them. My ;last two BMWs became uneconomic to repair not much past 100k miles. Nothing is designed to be taken out, engines can’t be stripped down, head gaskets can’t be replaced. Combined with the levels of modern complex systems, control and sensors, these so called luxury brands just become “Money Pits” to keep on the roads, it’s now cheaper to lease a new German car than buy a 5 year old secondhand one. Car design is now driven by sales and marketing, not engineers in my opinion, the quality doesn’t go past the cabin materials and driver controls, everything else is cheap, poor materials and not designed to last past the first lease contract.

I am an American that has purchased many cars over my time. I’ve had all from Ford, GM, Chrysler to Audi, BMW Mercedes and even Kia Honda and Toyota’s. Out all I’ve had, my Toyota and Mazda are by far the must reliable vehicles I’ve bought. In my opinion based on what I’ve had, the Japanese by far have superior engineering and quality. Both have over 200,000 miles with no problems outside of normal wear and tear (tires, breakers, bulbs etc..)

The issue is obvious - they make a lot more $ repairing their cars than they do in selling them in the first place. So they made them lerss reliable (just able to pass the warranty) and of course the parts are either only available at the dealer (no aftermarket support) or they must be installed by the dealer and be "activated" to work. The line of cars going in for service at the local BMW and Audi dealers that I pass each morning is funny and tragic. The worst part is that VW is meant to be "budget German" and costs almost the same to maintain/fix as the Audis they share parts with.

When the first golf was launched, all service departments were issued with pocket magnifying glasses so when rust bubbles appeared they could tell the customer they were stone chips and not rust. Lying to the public has been endemic in VW for ever.

I am German and I don’t buy German cars since almost 20 years. I only drive Japanese cars and my favourite brands are are Toyota and Mazda. I currently own a Mazda. My last caller was a Toyota celica and I had it from 1996 (built 1991) to 2014, and it never had an issue. My lads with German cars had to purchase 5 to 8 German cars in this time period

The biggest red flag is plastic parts in the engine bay. That’s unreliability at its peak. I mean how can you be so sure that the plastic in throttle body won’t snap under high pressure and temperature. That’s just one example. A few years down the line they might start making 3D printed engine blocks

thats interesting to hear. im living in germany and i see so many people driving a volkswagen and a bmw. i would never buy a german car like bmw or volkswagen. i will buy a toyota honda or mazda.

my first 2 cars where german but both had mechanical issues that the official dealer was not able to deal with due to the hassle and not feeling comfortable to not have a reliable car I switched to Japanese cars. maybe not as luxurious as the germans, but until now they have not failed me yet.

German cars now are very expensive to maintain,parts are hard to come by,and installing them is a nightmare. Eg.Replacing a car battery on a BMW requires the computer to be reprogrammed. While on a Toyota the computer programmes itself,simply drive the car to reprogram it. My former college classmate had a VW Tiguan. The A/C compressor failed and cost more than $1000 just for the part. So he replaced it with a Japanese A/C compressor for less than $300. Works perfect.

Some time ago I read a quite interesting article about how car manufacturers want to make money nowadays. Basically it had to do with planned obsolescence, or the article made a parallel with razor blades. Razor blades' manufacturers usually sell the first package quite cheap and then they charge you a fortune when you need new blades But at that point they have you locked in with their product so you are going to buy new expensive blade . Car manufacturers do the same, they now that if they sell a car for less they are going to sell more of it but they don't want the car to run forever, whener something brakes down because iy was supposed to last x kms they are going to sell you end expensive soare part and cash in on it.

I have seen too many disassemble videos of German cars and engines by automotive vloggers around the world to still trust German quality. German cars look nice. But under the hood there's too much cheap parts and plastics. In fact I have banned all German brands from my purchase list. My last German car was a brand new Audi. When I opened the hood the day I picked the car up from the dealer, I could see rust on a few parts already even though the car was brand new out of factory. After 2 years a capital engine failure. Transmission was stuttering and kicking in traffic jams. I had to get a software update twice in order to not spin wheels when driving of a crossroad (unpredictable turbo peak). Toyota Lexus next, maybe Great Wall, Geely or Tesla.

After retiring from the auto mechanics trade and the assembly line (I built fire trucks) I had a five year stint working at a popular auto parts store. Image-conscious people of limited means often purchased high end German luxury cars that were 10 to 15 years old with 150,000+ miles on them. Cars that originally sold for $80,000-$100,000 could easily be had for $10,000-$12,000 each. However, whenever the owner of one of these cars came into the auto parts store and asked for a typical usually high-end component, such as a starter, alternator, radiator, air conditioning blower motor, etc. I would type in the year, make, model, engine, size , and desired part. I would then turn the screen to the customer and just point at the price. The look on their face coupled with “ARE YOU CRAZY?!!!!” - Priceless!

It's in fact very simple. A colleague of mine always told potential customers: "do you want it to be modern and with a lot of electronics, or reliable". He is still right.

TÜV Report 2021 table for two- and three-year old cars produced in 2017 and 2018 with links to recalls*. Among the youngest cars, the overall winner, the Mercedes-Benz GLC ranks first, despite the fact that we record more than 15 recalls with this model. It is also worth mentioning the shared second place for the Opel Insignia, or the shared sixth place, where the Audi Q2 and Hyundai i30 are together. Among the predominantly German cars, the Mazda CX-3 also reached the top ten. At the very end of the table we can find all Romanian Dacia models, but also Fiat Punto, Renault Kangoo and Ford S-Max, Galaxy and Mondeo. What now?

An interesting, if short, video. Not unlike the comments below, my experience with Mercedes has been mixed, mostly riddled with small problems (noisy passenger window, faulty driver door side mirror, noisy front suspension...). Recently, I switched from a C class to a Volvo XC60. The difference in perceived construction quality is astoundingly in the Volvo's favour. The Volvo is also surprisingly more comfortable.

I’m Italian. When I’m growing up, Mercedes Benz is a dream for me and my dad. We also liked VW a lot. Its shameful how bad VW and Audi have gotten. I hope these companies address these issues seriously. Right now me and my dad have a Honda Civic and a Mazda 3. Great cars.

The JD power list is hillarious to me. The fact that US is at the top and even japanese brands below says enough to me

Respect to FW for spring this and calling it out. I miss quality German auto engineering.

I've been a avid buyer of German cars for years, as was my family. My dad had a S500 in 1997, and still owns it today. It's bombproof. 600,000 miles and counting. My first German car was a 3 Series in 2005, It was great. Since then I've owned a 1 Series, an E Class and a Tiguan, all new and all had issues. The E class was a joke. Rusting doors at 18 months old. Whole new engine at 21k miles at a year old, rattles and creaks were always present. It wasn't worth the money. The 1 Series had a issue with a intermittent misfire that they couldn't fix under warranty, it also had a ECU failure a few weeks after the warranry expired. The Tiguan caught fire and nearly killed me, VW didn't care. My wife and I now own Lexus's. No problems, built perfectly and never putting a foot wrong. It's a shame, I loved owning BMW and Mercedes, but they are not worth the premium anymore. I never brought them for the bragging rights of owning luxury German cars, just that I wanted quality and dependability, they didn't deliver on those promises.

Very sadly, I feel like Lexus have almost become what Mercedes used to be in terms of quality. The problem is that I’m not very keen on Lexus designs so I don’t buy one. Instead I use a new Honda civic for the family and I drive a 1983 380SE.

I am German. The last Passat 35i, 1.8 petrol, an 1989 I bought with 140t kms, drove it to 250 and my parents to 360t kms in cities, without any major replacements!!! Then the rust got it. I wont ever dare to buy a newer German car again.

Plastic replacing metal on engines, replacement of parts like oil filters on top of engines right next to alternators, unlike having metal tube attachments for hoses, and having oil filters low and securely fastened to the engine block are bad things.

I've owned over 100 cars from many car brands. American, Japanese, Korean, German, and Swedish. I can say with absolute confidence that Japanese cars are the most reliable and the easiest to work on. American and Korean cars are about the same with average reliability and repairability. German cars are the most fun and engaging but they also have an abundance of cheap plastic parts in critical areas (such as cooling and oiling systems) and they are by far the hardest to service.

The main problem with German cars (and in particular BMW and Mercedes) stems from the fact that they use complicated and innovative engineering, as pointed out in the video. This has always been the case, with Mercedes vehicles back in the early 70's for example sporting fuel injection, overhead camshafts, 4-wheel independent suspension & disc brakes etc as standard features, while vehicles from the US & elsewhere where still back in the stone age comparatively with their carburettors, pushrods, solid axels and drum brakes. Now this in itself isn't necessarily a problem if all the individual components that make up these complicated parts and assemblies are of high quality, however nowadays many of the most basic components have been cheapened in order to save a few cents here & there in production costs, resulting in these complicated parts and assemblies failing both predictably and on a regular basis, resulting in huge repair costs. Modern BMW's for example are notorious for oil leaks due to the installation of poorly designed seals of poor quality into the heart of these complicated and expensive parts and assemblies; these cheap substandard seals are not fit for purpose and will always fail after a relatively short period of time, usually shortly after the end of the warranty period has been reached.. Another example is Mercedes using cheap hydraulic hoses on their self-levelling suspension systems in recent decades; the hoses burst after a few years of use, however cannot be simply pulled-off and replaced for a few bucks as they are built into the assembly itself; the entire integrated suspension strut assembly must be instead replaced, costing thousands of dollars for each unit (of which four are fitted to each vehicle). This is the sole reason for the huge depreciation in values of used Mercedes & BMW vehicles in particular (and most European makes in general); a vehicle that cost well over $200K new is often worth only $20K or less after 9 or 10 years due to the huge cost of replacing all these expensive components that will inevitably fail around this time. Of course, this kind of thing is common across most manufacturers nowadays however the difference is that luxury marks like BMW and Mercedes charge a premium for this perceived "superior German quality" which in reality no longer exists, and the substandard replacement parts are then also triple the price of other makes due to being "quality German parts", which they are in fact not. So the only people to benefit from this (as also pointed out in the video) are these companies' shareholders through excess and undeserved profits, and their CEO's & upper management who receive generous profit-based performance bonuses.

What happened is they caught up with the rampant hyperconsumerism. What does it matter how reliable a car is past warranty if the owner changes the car by that point bc it wasn't even their property- it was on a lease like majority of new German cars "sold". We're in the age of planned obselecence and disposable commodities. My grandma's old Soviet washing mashine still works and it only needed one part changed in the last 20 years. My uncle's E38 still runs like clockwork and all he does is basic maintanance. I have an alarm clock my dad was using in his 20's and it still works after 40 years and all it needed was one transistor a year ago bc of a power surge we had. Things used to be made to last but that isn't proffitable enough. Companies need us to continously buy new stuff so they made it last less. Nearly everything is made to milk you for every last penny you're worth. We're cattle to be worked to death and made to spend money on stuff. That's also why there is this massive push for subscriptions everywhere- ideal customer is one that doesn't own anything and continues to spend. Thankfully there are still companies that do make products that last. In automotive space it's brands like Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, etc.

Friend bought a used Toyota years back. We laughed at them for buying a used Toyota, and, buying a Toyota. That Toyota RAV4 outlasted 3 new cars of his respective peers. 150k miles and the only issue was an exhaust replacement caused by undercarriage impact...he saya "you dont need a warranty for a Toyota, the cars badge _is_ the warranty!

I drive a BMW E39 and its running beautiful. No strange noises, no cheap materials used inside. Its golden. I would never trade it for a new BMW.

It’s all about money, of course. It’s always about money. The parts are expensive. They’re made so only the dealers can program the computer systems. Even a simple oil change is made to sound like a major service. They are very greedy and that’s the bottom line.

I have a MK7 golf 2.0TDI KOMBI ...i find id quite reliable(5years of ownership 178.000 km) the problems are minimal ... easy to live with, fun when it has to and when i look at the MK8 golf and all the sister cars come with it with all the touch screens i see less quality, especially i miss the buttons and knobs.

That's what happen to Polo Vivo. Two years after purchasing the paint started to defected. They denied they are to beheld liable. They are pathetic.

I've had a mix of german and japanese cars; Volkswagens and Mazdas. My Volkswagens always had problems (one assembled in Pueblo, MX, and the other in Wolfsburg, DE) and it's part of the experience. I'm not sure if the build quality is necessarily bad, but engineering often drives problems like choice of switches and regulators. The front fenders on my 2009 GTI rotted out surpringly early (worse than my Mazda Protege). My GTI had a DSG box and it was the main reason I got rid of it. I'd still consider a Volkswagen, but I have to wait a few model years before they sort out their issues. With a German car, you really need a warranty. I don't think American cars are much better though, and Korean cars feel like excellent products out of the bag but are fairly disposable after 12-15 years. All of my Mazdas on the other hand were almost flawless. They all have very thin sheetmetal and paint, and their corrosion resistance is still to this day a little subpar, but otherwise they are some of the best built vehicles I've ever had the pleasure of driving. My current 2014 Mazda3 has 150k km and runs like the day I took delivery almost 10 years ago and it was part of the very first batch of its generation. Mazda did it right the first time. I'd never take that chance with a Volkswagen. And lastly, the fun-to-drive aspect of German cars has completely evaporated. They all feel like insulated video games now, even cars like the GTI and BMW M-cars. So there's no more motivation to going the extra mile in getting it to run right; it's not even fun anymore. The Japanese still have interesting and fun products with excellent reliability. It's hard to go elsewhere.

This is quite true. When I was a child Mercedes was a brand of absolute quality; recently in my country there have been reports of Mercedes having to be returned owing to shoddy quality (and for many years Japanese brands have higher resale value)

Here in Holland there was a large study of 1000 car owners to see which brands are most reliable. Asian car brands were most reliable and had the least break downs. Interestingly Dacia was up there too. Those brands were seen the least on the side of the road with a breakdown, even percentagewiss

It's not just cars, it is also home appliances (made in Turkey and so on...)

I remember how mortified I was when my mom bought her fully loaded 2017 Jetta and the interior was cheaper than the 2003 Jetta I’d had in high school. The screen is all that’s important in new cars

I bought a VW Polo TSI thinking of the German reliability reputation of the past. Boy I was so wrong, and finally realized that reliable German cars were those in the 90s, not in 2010.. Dump the VW and went back to Toyota instead.. VW's reputation is falling into the drain in Southeast Asia market..

Our leased 2021 BMW i3 has been flawless since signing the paperwork 2.5 years ago. Maybe because they changed them little during its 10 year run.

Here in Mexico people is absurdly obsessed with VW cars (seat too). True is that, those cars in the 90's or so were very reliable, as an example the old beetle was produced until mid 2000 I guess. Bulletproof but then, when VW group expanded, I think they've lost a lot of quality. A friend's dad working at VW factory told me that made huge cuts in order to reduce production expenses, those cutting at the end came from quality. In the other hand Japanese cars were working in improving their quality standards and well, market here is changing a lot. Like 15 years ago you used to see German cars everywhere right now the market is split even with korean and chinese cars.

In 2015 i worked in call center for a second hand car parts store for about 9 months, all the calls i got through out my time there were for german cars (note to the reader: i got about 60-80 calls a day) and almost none for japanese cars no matter the year of manufacturing...that speaks volumes...

Mercs started losing quality after the w124 model. I know of quite a number of owners wouldn't sell their 124s for the price of a new entry level mercedes of today

They lost the plot. Over two decades I had purchased four 5 series sedans in a row. One day I was presented with a $2500 bill for a headlight. Are you kidding? Then you look around at the $25MM dealership, yup, they need putzes to pay for this Taj Mahal. Brand destroying BS. BMW used to be a car guys car, small dealerships where the owner would be heading out to the local track on the weekend. They didn't keep it real, sneezed all the little dealers out and now its just overpriced BS tripping. Haven't bought one since that headlight incident. They made a great car but forgot the customer also expects from a premium car quality, longevity and reasonable repair costs/total cost of ownership

Crank shaft on my high quality German Audi A6 broke into pieces while I was scheduled for a service to replace dual clutch (just a part is almost 2000 eur + work). The car worked excellent during first 5 years though 🤪

One issue, is that German autos are not designed to be easily repaired. I have owned two successive Audi’s and have close friends with BMW’s and Mercedes. Simple repairs can require a complete disassembly of the entire front end, just to get to a $15 part. This leads to more shop time - $$$ - and more opportunities for other systems or components to fail.

I got myself a BMW E36 as a first car and after 4 years of ownership yes it needs its repairs from time to time but they are CHEAP and after all those years they are well deserved. My dad's VW Tiguan is another story. Not to mention the feel of building quality and driving experience. Instead of those factors improving in a newer car they declined noticably.

I drive a early 2000s Mercedes. Thing is still built like a tank, absolutely zero issues so far... I do agree that, in general, quality of products has just gotten worse due to the pressure to sell sell sell with more and better features each time. Nothing is made to be repaired, they just want you to use for a while and replace. It's criminal against our planet...

older cars had issues as well. I remember helping my grandpa around his mercedes 190 back in the day (mostly fuses, other electronic issues and the freaking cooling that never worked 100%). ppl fixed the stuff themselves and didnt complain too much about it while today you got to get it to a shop and pay big bucks for the smallest issues.

I wouldn't mind the drop in quality of the price would drop as well.

I bought a 20 year old, Lupo, and at the same time my friend bought a brand new VW,. In the three years since , my Lupo has never let me down and my friend’s VW breaks down constantly. It’s also very expensive to repair, so she recently got rid of it and bought a Honda.

*At the exact moment (**5:08** onwards) quality of past cars were mentioned ------ they zoom in on the W124!* *WHAT AN UNDISPUTED LEGEND!!!*

To be honest I really wanted to have a German car myself as a German But sadly the Simple Cars that were Produced are not longer simple or reliable or cheap It went from Simple to Complex in a rapid manner from the 70s to the 90s As of Today I drive a Hyundai because they sure are more reliable then any German car. Simple and a Hint of Technology to assist me in Driving on the Highway.

I feel like the same thing happened at the same time with the Swedish car industry. My family owned nothing but Volvos from the 1980s until 2011. When we bought our first Volvo designed under Ford, it was an expensive, unreliable, piece of garbage that turned us away from the brand. Under Chinese ownership, the products have only gotten more expensive and even less reliable. My family switched to Honda: the spiritual successor of old Volvos in my opinion.

When removing plastic covers in the engine compartment to replace spark plugs recently on my 2016 VW Jetta 1.4 Turbo with 50,000 miles, I was surprised at how easily plastic tabs break off, requiring replacement. I also noticed previous damage to intake tubes from VW dealer oil change technicians who removed them to check the air filter for example, and I replaced those tubes also. The care runs and drives exceptionally well, one does not notice the turbo, only the instant throttle response, very smooth ride, yet nice handling, but concerned how the car will hold up with age. Not fair to compare to Mercedes, but I have owned or own W124, W126, and W140, from years 1986 to 1998 and when something has to be disassembled on those cars, even on the 190,000 mile car, you can put it back together properly as if nothing happened (I am a former Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz technician).

You are not putting my mind to ease. I love my Audi 80 coupe, I am having a blast driving it, but it is aging. I have been thinking what to replace it with. Apparently it is mission impossible.

My son bought a 2016 VW Jetta. The left headlight and the marker lights keep burning out, once a year. We have a 2012 Ford F150 with the same miles (50K....) I don't remember the last time I replaced the headlights on the truck.

Had a Mercedes rental car in Germany in 2001. It was beautiful, only had 4,000 miles on it. Drove it from the airport, stopped for lunch. When I tried to drive away after lunch, there was a "DO NOT DRIVE - BRAKE SYSTEM FAILURE" message. They brought me a different Merc. It had a panel on the door that kept falling off and landing against my leg. Pretty much convinced me to never buy a Merc.

My father drove Mercedes diesels in the 1980s. those things were tanks and probably could still run today had he held onto them. unfortunately they realized there's more money in making cars that don't last as long.

I'm one of who's loved and enjoyed the MB 190 up to try to use it in racing car... I've drive several cars of the 80's & 90's... And know I'm driving an Opel Corsa of 2012 (bought in 2012) and bough have no common with the today's germen cars... the 80/90's cars was so great, secure as speedy, funny, pleasant and joyful to drive... The responses were instant in time response and no delay as very sharp in space precisions and I've drived ''in millimeters sharp between the elements'', as we say here in Algeria, up to 190 km/h & 250km/h. The 2012 's car with the robotized gearbox is hard but stay secure to drive. something like an 80's Opel with a lot of lakes! For example, I've to wait 02 up to 05 sec. max. to feel the response of the brakes or gearbox when I solicit them. And what to say about the ABS... Comparaison in 2015 & 2018 between the Opel Senator - Corsa (1981-2012), Mercedes190 (1985) & 300D (1990) WV Amarok (2010) - Passat (2018) - Polo (2014) - Golf (2019-1989) is hard for the 2010-2018 range but great for the 80-90's ones! For today's germain cars, I prefer to stay in souvenirs of what I've loved in driving the 80/90's then to experience long time driving as unlikable and something like unperson car... The what I got for short time to drive. The Korean and Japanese do better but for small height then for me... ha ha ha

German cars generally were well made a few decades ago...but then they decided that they could just sell name brand status at really high prices with cheap low quality. And so far it has mostly worked. Many are turned off my it...but others only care about the status and will change their cars in 5 years anyways.

I remember how many years ago I got into one of the first examples of the electric Golf 7 and while I was driving, the onboard computer suddenly read a message that it needs an oilchange. Excellent stuff 😂👍

This is true. Sadly the best driving big car I've ever had, Audi Q5, was also the most problematic. Constantly having issues and it's not like I drove it hard or any at all. Now I drive a 22 year old Lexus with far less problems. Sad

I grew up blue-collar in the US. At that time, a German car (especially a Mercedes) was the ultimate status symbol known for its high engineering standard. I worked hard and became successful, and in the early 2000s, I purchased a Mercedes sedan. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. The engine would balk with heavy acceleration, and the quality control was atrocious. I had electronic display panels replaced multiple times, and very rudimentary items like two door handles and the cigarette lighter literally disconnected from the car. Repair and maintenance costs were through the roof, and the dealer always seemed to find an additional expensive repair when I brought the car in for anything, including an oil change. After a few years, I had had it with German cars and sold the Mercedes. What did I replace it with? A reliable Honda that my kids still drive today.

Guys, whats the song on 12:00 ?

my dad and my uncle have 30 year old toyotas with original transmissions and over 500K on the odo. my audi transmission just broke today, less than 10 years old, under 80k on the odo. so much for german quality

Another contributing factor is the product cycle that is getting shorter and shorter, while the portfolio is getting wider and wider. How many models does BMW have in 1980s? 4. In 2000s? 11. Now? Lost count. While a model development in the olden days takes quite some years from early design phase until final testing, current cars are developed within fractions of that time. Yes, computers and other tech helps to accelerate but still lot of shortcuts are made.

I can pinpoint the moment the German car industry began its downfall: The advent of electronic assistance systems and software. Over the years, I've driven all kinds of cars - first Japanese (Nissan) back in the 90s, then BMW and ultimately, since almost 14 years now, different models of Volkswagen (6y Polo, 6y Touran, now ID4). I always had a lease for 3 years, so every three years I got the latest model - so I could experience the evolution first hand. The first problems appeared in the Touran. It was the first car I got that featured advanced assistance systems and from the start there were some problems here and there. At first not very often, but then the next generation of the Touran arrived an it got noticeably worse: Sensors sometimes gave of false alarms, cruise control sometimes just decided not to work, sometimes for days. The car entertainment system crashed a bit more often than before. But all in all, most of the time the car still worked okay. Enter the ID.4. This is no longer a classic car. This is a computer on wheels. These types of cars live and breathe software. And this time, VW has ultimately proven that they can't do software if you put a gun to their heads. The software was riddled with bugs, the first iteration of the 12V battery was not powerful enough to reliably power all the electronics, so they had to recall and replace it. The OTA updates that were promised did not yet work, so during the recall they also updated the software to 2.4, finally enabling OTA capability. In theory - a few days ago, they announced that they stopped OTA because of too many problems and all people stuck on version 2.x would be contacted by their dealers for a manual update (but, hey, that's a lot of cars and the car to be in the shop for a couple of days so, yeah, that might take a while). And all the people who already got the 3.0 update, but whose cars were initially delivered with 2.x, have to go back to the shop as well - oh, but that may take even longer. I can't see myself get another German car after this experience - at least not a Volkswagen.

Since recently owning a second hand Vw Golf 7 GTI performance (2016), I’ve been dealing with oil and coolant leaks issues. Other than the costs, takes much time to resolve them. It’s very much time and money consuming. Basically they are not reliable although really fun to drive and emotionally attaching.

Love my old Mercedes. Had for five years plus and spent very little to purchase and to maintain. Yes, I ride a Kymco scooter most of the time and the car sits in the garage. LOL

Mercedes has historically been a high maintenance luxury brand which, when maintained properly, could deliver many miles and years of service. There was a cultural shift that took place during the 90`s where car companies like Toyota began to take market share in the luxury car market. This placed enormous pressure on luxury brands like Mercedes to reduce manufacturing costs and they struggled to master the art of efficiently mass-producing high technology. During this struggle many long time, loyal consumers changed brands and never turned back. This loss of brand loyalty was further magnified by the introduction of vehicle leasing sales strategies as a new culture of vehicle consumers never really developed a "pride in ownership" relationship with the vehicle. These factors created a further requirement that dealerships needed to have more highly skilled employees in every department, from the front of the store to the back of the store, and the problem with that was that workers with these skills generally did not work in the automotive industry. The customer experience at the dealership suffered further as a result of these factors.