Nothing will last in New England
Yeah you have to have a garage in new england....the weather will eat your car alive.
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What country makes the most reliable cars?
- Thread starter Frisco
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Yeah you have to have a garage in new england....the weather will eat your car alive.
I'm amazed that so many people feel American made cars are good quality. My Ranger and Saturn both had major problems at under 50k.
My Civic has been through the ringer and has had no major issues at all.
VW's quality has shot back up. For awhile there it was the Mexican made cars that had the most problems. Mercedes in the last two years has also gotten things under control.
My Civic has been through the ringer and has had no major issues at all.
VW's quality has shot back up. For awhile there it was the Mexican made cars that had the most problems. Mercedes in the last two years has also gotten things under control.
Yep, base quality of the whole brand on one bad car. Hey, how about buying at least 5 vehicles from the brand to see if there crap. My family has had 7 Chrysler products. Most of them were crap. So I will be avoiding Chrysler for now. But, I didn't take my dads 330xi and saying BMW's are crap because the water pump blew below 50K and the pulley was worn out at 70K miles. If you look at my sig below you see we ordered a 2007 BMW 335xi. I am not labeling Toyota as crap because my dads 80's Corolla blew a manifold at 20K. Things happen. Just don't base the brands quality on one bad product.
Unfortunately, most of us can't afford to buy 5 different cars from each available company to test their reliability.
Really, the whole idea of this thread is to take many different individual experiences and opinions and compile them into one study so each of us don't have to buy multiple vehicles before we can find the best.
9 people voted America? 9? Who are you people?
Japanese cars do have style as well, they are so fantastically good. Personally I'll always want something from Germany, but thats a person opinion, and that wasnt the question. But for Japanese style...
Japanese cars do have style as well, they are so fantastically good. Personally I'll always want something from Germany, but thats a person opinion, and that wasnt the question. But for Japanese style...
Yeah, they should be on the bottom half of the list, if not the bottom.
That's a great marketing tool. Even the jeans I wear have soul, and it only cost me an extra $30!!
If you had 2 problems with the BMW, then why did you rate them 2nd on your list, and rate Japan 3rd?
i have no idea who is voting for german. Are they the best fit and finish in general- I would agree to that. Do they have the best performance overall, in general, probably. I don't see where people see that they have good reliability.
Lets take Audi, VW, Porchse Mercedes, and BMW. My mom used to have an A4 2 cars ago (1996 I believe). I remember it had some big Quattro issue. I said before, pretty much everyone that I know that owns a VW has sold it because of reliability issues. When my mom was B****** at the VW dealer at all the repairs that had to be done to her car, the service manager and another employee admitted themselves that they didn't drive VW's because they weren't reliable enough- I think one drive a maxima and the other a camry or a corolla. They said that BMW's were even worse with reliability and from what i hear X5's fall apart after 30,000 miles.
Mercedes and Porsche I don't really know. You see a lot of old mercedes so I suppose they are reliable, or at least used to be. Porsches are sports cars, so they don't really count with reliability
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Mercedes and Porsche I don't really know. You see a lot of old mercedes so I suppose they are reliable, or at least used to be. Porsches are sports cars, so they don't really count with reliability
You would then be surprised to know that Porsches are extremely reliable. The brand exists since 1948 and they claim that over 70% of cars ever produced by them are still in working condition.
http://www.porsche.com/usa/pre-owned-vehicles/approved/quality/
Our MK4 Golf was quite good. The only thing that went wrong was the windows dropping..Which TBH is a fault with the Platform. Our new Leon FR is good so far, but its an '05 so still in guarantee. Our X Reg Mondeo is Ok..Few suspension problems though. We also had a Mk2 GTI, which was so fun to drive. Also an Xr4i which we didnt have for long..But was good. We had a few MK3 Cavaliers as well. Who didn't have on of those in england?!
Japanese cars are awesome...
As somebody who travels for business I frequently get to ride in rental cars, and rental car companies in the states (for some reason) buys LOTS of American made cars. I haven't been in a single nice, American car in the last 2 years. I'm not sure we make 'em anymore.
Of course, it's hard for me to compare some of those countries because I've never driven, e.g., an Italian car.
I predict Korean cars become as reliable as Japanese cars in the next 5-10 years, and Chinese cars follow suit 5-10 years after that.
As somebody who travels for business I frequently get to ride in rental cars, and rental car companies in the states (for some reason) buys LOTS of American made cars. I haven't been in a single nice, American car in the last 2 years. I'm not sure we make 'em anymore.
Of course, it's hard for me to compare some of those countries because I've never driven, e.g., an Italian car.
I predict Korean cars become as reliable as Japanese cars in the next 5-10 years, and Chinese cars follow suit 5-10 years after that.
Are Acuras as good as their reputation with Consumer reports and the like? I have been trying to get my dad to buy a TL for a while now, but he just won't give in.
With regards to your comments about the Suburban, are you sure that your luck in the accident didn't have to do with your Suburban outweighing the Subaru by almost a ton?
Acuras are awesome. My mom owned two and then I bought one when I graduated from college. They are fun, lean, not too expensive, yada yada yada. I think the styling is way ahead of American cars right now, although distinct from European cars also.
For years I bought Chevys. Then I bought a Nissan Pathfinder. Very reliable. It's nothing to run a Toyota or Nissan to well over 200,000 miles as long as it's maintained properly. I also had Volvos. They're too expensive to maintain.
Um. I'd be surprised if Australian car manufacturers even know the meaning of RELIABILITY or BUILD QUALITY or GOOD WORKMANSHIP.
when your workforce spends half it's time stealing the components to "upgrade" their own cars, and the rest of the time thinking its FUNNY to put the WRONG PARTS ON CARS, something is WRONG.
The problems were over time of ownership of the BMW. With the Corolla it was the blown manifold at 20K and my dad got rid of it. He didn't keep it due to that blown manifold as he couldn't trust it after a major part like the manifold went at an early stage of the cars life. Now you could argue the water pump and a pulley are major parts, but that is what my dad told me.
i have no idea who is voting for german. Are they the best fit and finish in general- I would agree to that. Do they have the best performance overall, in general, probably. I don't see where people see that they have good reliability.
Lets take Audi, VW, Porchse Mercedes, and BMW. My mom used to have an A4 2 cars ago (1996 I believe). I remember it had some big Quattro issue. I said before, pretty much everyone that I know that owns a VW has sold it because of reliability issues. When my mom was B****** at the VW dealer at all the repairs that had to be done to her car, the service manager and another employee admitted themselves that they didn't drive VW's because they weren't reliable enough- I think one drive a maxima and the other a camry or a corolla. They said that BMW's were even worse with reliability and from what i hear X5's fall apart after 30,000 miles.
Mercedes and Porsche I don't really know. You see a lot of old mercedes so I suppose they are reliable, or at least used to be. Porsches are sports cars, so they don't really count with reliability
I think the problem with your cars are that they were manufactured when the reliability and QC was poor. The VAG QC has improved drastically, and now their cars reliability such as the B7 A and the MKV VW's are fantastic, especially when you consider that the new Civic when released had a quite few recalls in the US. The VAG cars that have the best reliablity are built entirely in Germany -at least to my knowledge.
Mercedes has been known to be reliable as long as you maintenance it regularly, also BMWs, Porsches, ects. but these maintenances are quite expensive due to parts. Its sad to see some students at my university who have 50k+ cars but won't spend 3k on maintaining it yearly
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After this thread yesterday, I had a weird dream where my mom bought a "Suburban Ecoud" (which makes absolutely no sense) and didn't like it because it didn't have the rear-camera like the TV ad. Also, if you turned your eyes to the left, the car shined its lights to the left also and it had a name, but I can't remember.
That's what I get for drinking vitamin water before going to bed...
Edit: 1001st post.
That's what I get for drinking vitamin water before going to bed...
Edit: 1001st post.
I had a weird dream too that VW since they had so many light bulb problems gave free light bulb replacements especially since there bulbs were only made by VW. It was weird.
Only in my dreams I guess.
Well, on my British made Land Rover Discovery I just replaced the ignition. The dealer wanted $600-$750 to replace it depending on labor saying it would take 1.5 to 3 hours. Instead I bought a used ignition for $35 -$7.85 shipping -a light bulb socket I also ordered. Oh, and it took me ~35 minutes INCLUDING the time to resolder and connection because the replacement didn't have the light bulb that illuminates the ring around the igniton. 1.5 to 3 hours my @$$ you gold digging dealership.
They also told me I can't replace a light that illuminates a button. HAH! Liars, there is a removable bulb that unscrews and you can buy replacements on line. $15 switch vs $2 bulb. Hmmmm.
And since when do ignitions go bad in cars after 90,000 miles?
Only in my dreams I guess.
Well, on my British made Land Rover Discovery I just replaced the ignition. The dealer wanted $600-$750 to replace it depending on labor saying it would take 1.5 to 3 hours. Instead I bought a used ignition for $35 -$7.85 shipping -a light bulb socket I also ordered. Oh, and it took me ~35 minutes INCLUDING the time to resolder and connection because the replacement didn't have the light bulb that illuminates the ring around the igniton. 1.5 to 3 hours my @$$ you gold digging dealership.
They also told me I can't replace a light that illuminates a button. HAH! Liars, there is a removable bulb that unscrews and you can buy replacements on line. $15 switch vs $2 bulb. Hmmmm.
And since when do ignitions go bad in cars after 90,000 miles?
Yes, but for every bad Toyota, how many bad Chevys are there? My uncles used to buy Chevys in the 80s, but they're not only not as reliable, they're also ugly. I also hate most of the new cars from GM. Maybe I just don't care for large bulky looking cars.
I've seen some old Chevys but I see many more old Toyotas and Hondas on the roads around here. All of our Toyotas have lasted at least 10 years or 100k without issues. We only got rid of the first Camery, because some idiot smashed it up in a hit and run. =/
There certainly are reliability issues here. The U.S. has different standards and regulations and certain diesel models aren't permitted here. I know that at least and that my friends in Europe love their Mercedes or BMWs, and that they last a while.
VW has been going down hill lately, especially in the U.S. market.
I think German cars are great, but Japanese ones are unbelievable. And they have much better resale value, esp. over their American counterparts.
quattro issue? wait, i didn't think quattro was breakable. and the 2.8 engine was thought to be more reliable than the 1.8T.
but then again, any first model year usually has a higher share of problems.
I have had excellent results with my Subaru's. Before I got into subes, I owned a Toyota Truck for ten years. The clutch wore out at about 60K, that's about it. Everything else was routine service. If I wanted another truck, I'd go with Toyota.
I've heard pro and con about the reliability of German cars. One of my co-workers has a Passat, about a year old. He likes the car, but he has had some serious issues, including the engine simply stopping at very bad times. In the case of Audi, I think the business with the bad ignition coils hurt them quite a bit.
Sorry GM fans, but I don't know anyone who has purchased a GM anything in the past ten years who has been happy with the purchase.
I've heard pro and con about the reliability of German cars. One of my co-workers has a Passat, about a year old. He likes the car, but he has had some serious issues, including the engine simply stopping at very bad times. In the case of Audi, I think the business with the bad ignition coils hurt them quite a bit.
Sorry GM fans, but I don't know anyone who has purchased a GM anything in the past ten years who has been happy with the purchase.
As looks are subjective, I am not going to battle over it, but I am interested in what new models you don't like.
Didn't you read my other posts. Stop using the 80's. It is common knowledge that the Big 3 sucked back then. How are you supposed to know if GM's quality improved if you won't try one out because you're screaming, " The 80's the 80's!!!" How about the 60's when Americans considered Japanese cars to be POS's( and were)? 20 years later, they flocked to them. So if you can trust Japanese cars 20 years after there quality waslacking, why can't people do the same for GM? Twenty years is a long time and you think GM is sitting on their butt still putting out the crap they did 20 years ago?
It will be 10 years before today GM vehicles can be said to be reliable so I guess that is when people will wait and see if they can trust GM and Ford again.
PS: I am happy with my 4 GM products that my family has had for the past 10 years. Then again, I might be a bit biased.
PSS: You know why do I even bother trying to change peoples minds? If there so closed minded and made there mind up already, why bother? I'm done with this thread after this post.
Matter of taste, I guess. With the exception of the third picture, I'd say none of those cars has any distinctive style. They're very safe, staid designs that bear quite a similarity to each other.
For me that's a frustrating dichotomy. I'd love the MPG of a Japanese car, but without the boring styling. OTOH the Pontiac Solstice and the Chrysler 300 do it for me style-wise, but with mediocre mileage.