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Jalopnik on German reliability the biggest myth ever sold to American car buyers.
As a journalist, I think it is my duty to provide you, the reader, with carefully studied columns that employ impartial facts to present multiple sides of issues more complex today Today I will use a lot of hyperbole and anecdotal evidence write about German cars.
I came with the idea of today that the only thing less reliable column a German car is a wristwatch Happy Meal a few weeks ago while talking to a German friend, he said, without any hint of irony in his voice because Germans don t have the capacity of irony; just clean, modern German cars that will last forever It was also amazed when I started coughing violently after a few minutes of uncontrollable laughter.
For some reason, the Germans still believe this stuff they really think that modern German cars, which use the same technology to the cruise control our government uses to monitor the skies for the impending nuclear war, will still running perfectly in 20 years.
I have two possible theories why the Germans feel this way, is that the Germans really know cars are crap, but they refuse to slander Germany, so they can not ever mention Then they go home them at night and lie awake thinking about how their trunk to more stopped working and now they'll have to carry their luggage on the back seat whenever a stranger is near.
The other theory is that these cars actually go live, perfectly preserved, Germany This is because the Germans always keep things perfectly, in perpetuity, which is somewhat contrary to how we behave in America, for example if a fire engine control is continuing in Germany, a German will rush to the dealer and have established whereas an American will solve check engine light by going to Home Depot for a power strip for cover and b visit McDonald's on the way back.
But whatever the reason, the Germans really think their cars are built to last forever And here's the thing it is not only the Germans who feel this way, there is also a small contingent of Americans who tell you, no matter how you argue against that German cars will last a million miles without ever needing an important service it is usually the people who get a new S class every three years.
Now, before entering the reality of the situation, I came to tell you that I understand all these perceptions of the reliability of the German car just Primarily, they come from the old days, when the German cars were actually more reliable than the foreign rivals, and they were built like tanks, and dictators of evil cruising around in them because they could not withstand a nuclear attack and out totally unscathed, except for the flags mounted on the visor bumper.
But let's be honest here, people, this is no longer the case and it has not been the case for some time.
For proof, I start with my own experience of having German cars I Ve from eight in total of all important German automaker and Volkswagen and they were all complete pieces of crap.
OK, so maybe they weren t so bad Oh sure, the transmission died in one of them and yes, so I had to replace the ignition switch to another, and a differential in third, there was the failed window regulators, check engine lights, worn suspension components prematurely and pressure monitors ghost and my tires Mercedes G-Wagen has suffered problems of response to the accelerator until I understood that he was rusty enough to be a wreck of the civil war era, but they were great when they were working, right.
Unfortunately, that's the biggest problem with the German cars they're not working Oh sure, they have problems relatively to the first years of ownership Technically defined as right until Thursday after the warranty expires But even then you are still losing an insane amount of money in depreciation and once the depreciation curve begins to flatten, problems begin to arise, which means that you can t have safely a German car for more than an afternoon without spending as much money as airline return ticket to Bermuda.
Of course, my own anecdotal experience aren t my only evidence here We also have years of JD Power long-term dependability studies, which consistently put the American or Japanese cars in the spots of higher reliability, while cars German are in totally different categories, such as Broke on the way to test Facility.
The main problem, as I see it, is that the Germans are too obsessed with stuffing all kinds of trendy gadgets in their cars This is largely because no one questions the prowess of German engineering; they're still the best so that they continue to show their dominance in engineering by creating all kinds of crazy gadgets and stick them in the car; things that nobody wants, like glove boxes and refrigerators cooled rear armrest, and small tray tables that fold down, presumably to allow people riding in the back of an Audi A8 to cocaine.
For a better example of this, I turn to the first generation Audi Allroad, which was an AWD wagon which is on sale here in America in autumn 2000.
While most companies just settle for the construction of a training break to have four-wheel drive, Audi could not just that they had to do more, they could only normal suspension, for example, they had to have an adjustable suspension up and down to allow families of Connecticut through the grass parking games Lacrosse They just could not a typical automatic transmission; he had to provide manual shifting capabilities and they just could not a regular V6, they had to add two turbochargers.
The result, as I'm sure you can imagine, is that the suspension failed, transmissions went wrong, and each remaining V6 Allroad is currently leaking oil through its turbochargers, except those on blocks because of bad suspension and blown transmission All this, incidentally, was in addition to your usual set of problems Audi, as it actually happened to me flashing that gift flashing t, but stays on when you press the lever.
For this reason, I took the measure of the reliability of the car on the scale that I have dubbed the Audi Allroad scale of unreliability that class based cars the way they are close the Audi Allroad original in terms of potential for maintenance bills at random four-digit eg the Lexus ES300 is pretty low on the Audi Allroad scale whereas an unreliable vehicle entirely by chimpanzees provided with random car parts would be almost as bad as the Allroad perhaps even worse if chimpanzees are German.
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