German myth about engineering excellence

The reliability index is calculated according to how often a car needs to be repaired, and how expensive those repairs are.

I can't help but think this doesn't help the germany/luxury brands rank very well - as the repairs are generally far more expensive than on a Ford or Mazda for example...
 
In my experience VW brands are costly to maintain and seem to suffer many faults. This is my finding with the Passat of mine. The 528i E39 BMW which preceded it was by far and away more reliable and the odd bit of remedial work wasn't eye wateringly expensive.

Many people claim that the E39 was possibly one of the best built BMWs to date; my experience validates that claim.

But I am talking about two cars here, so my findings are hardly representative of the whole gamut of models made by either maker.

I will add though that I've chucked more money (over £3000) at this Passat in the 12 months I've owned it than I chucked at a Nissan Primera 2.0i SLX, Peugeot 406 2.2 HDi and BMW 528i all added together. That was 16 years and over 400,000 miles of driving.

Hence my slight distrust of VW brands now.
 
Exactly Rob, a friend of mine has an R8, a Bentley Speed and an Audi Q7, later on in the year when the annual services are due on them all he is thinking of dusting off the old balaclava and the Purdey shotgun; there is a sub-post office he has his eye on to help pay the bills ;)
 
In my arithmetic I have not included consumables but those, too, seem to be expensive from VW compared to any other cars I've owned/operated. Nor general servicing.

I don't mind the Passat needing a few bits of work at it's age of nearly ten years now but the amount of issues and the eye watering cost of fixing them is not acceptable. I am considering attacking VW UK directly to be honest.
 
My mate has a 2006 330 touring and he's had a staggering amount of problems with it.

And some bizarre engineering. For instance the sensor for the remote locking is in the tailgate, so gets hammered every time you shut it. And eventually it breaks. And costs hundreds for a new one.

What a stupid place to put it.

What amazes me on that list is Chevrolet. Which are owned by GM, but are a lot cheaper second hand.
 
In the US VW has great marketing and appeals to younger and clueless customers. The cars are problematic, cheaply built, over-engineered and generally poor quality. In my job I work on a lot of different cars and VWs are difficult to do the simplest work on, always seem to have multiple little issues, trim falling off, cheap plastic that breaks easily and the cars have poor performance. I wouldn't buy a VW for myself. In 96 I got a new Jetta and it was nothing but problems for the 4 years I had it.
 
My Bora wasn't too bad to be fair, I got it at high mileage - 97k, did almost 40k in it, apart from routine servicing I had to replace the clutch but that was it. It's the only VW I have had though.

I was lucky as well to have a very good VAG independent garage locally, with labour rates basically half that of a main dealer.
 
Up to around 2003 they were very good indeed, after this date IMO the quality tailed off as they chased profits and went with the cheapest part suppliers.

A friend has a 1997 s6 with 225,000 miles on the clock and it's still going strong. Most of the original parts are lasting. The coil packs have only just needed replacing!
 
Yes, I am reading many things similar to this, the quality of VW products is not what it was. Some say that the same is true of post 2003 BMW models. Perhaps I was spoilt with the E39?? Shame it was written of a year ago - thanks to a 17 year old who rear ended it so hard that the floorpan was badly bent.

I don't actually mind the Passat's 2.0 TDi Pumpe Duse engine to be fair (it's just the rest of the car that seems to be giving me problems)!

It's not the sweetest of 4 cylinder diesels but the savage, all-or-nothing torque delivery (and there's plenty) makes it quite good fun to drive. Nothing spectacular below about 1500rpm & no point going beyond 3500rpm but that narrow 2000rpm 'window' is immensely usable.
 
Up to around 2003 they were very good indeed, after this date IMO the quality tailed off as they chased profits and went with the cheapest part suppliers.

A friend has a 1997 s6 with 225,000 miles on the clock and it's still going strong. Most of the original parts are lasting. The coil packs have only just needed replacing!
Thats interesting cos my bora was 2002 and still going strong on 143k when I sold it on.
 
Thats interesting cos my bora was 2002 and still going strong on 143k when I sold it on.

So it should be. My Passat is at 136,000 and the engine, as previously mentioned, is fine. It walked the MoT smoke test last month with 0.11 out of a permissible 1.80 ppmmol on the first run. It's all the things bolted to the engine (ie. the rest of the car) which is/are problematic. I wouldn't mind having stuff repaired if it wasn't so eye wateringly expensive to do.

I am using an independent so I am not paying dealer rates per hour but the amount of hours required to do simple things to a VW is ridiculous compared to BMW, Nissan, Peugeot, Seat, Rover, Vauxhall etc etc.

Why VW promotes original parts is beyond me. Given how unreliable this car has proven to be, why on Earth would I want to use original parts?
 
I just replaced the brake pads on my car with Pagid ones, £66 incl fitting against £125 for genuine Audi pads! They work just as well!
 
I had a 2009 Smart (made by Mercedes) and it was nothing but trouble. Constant problems with the engine randomly cutting out and not restarting. No error codes generated by the ECU, so the dealer wasn't able to find the problem.

Sold it back to the dealer and bought a Citroen C1 instead. Never had an issue other than the battery dying unexpectedly after 2 years. Very reliable, cheap to run, easy to service.
 
I've recently bought a Lemon VAG product, A6 3.0 tdi, lowish mileage, 10 years old and what a heap of carbage, I've mainly been a Ford man (usually high mileage-never with fault) but thought I'd try something premium, what a mistake, now talking to dealers and mechanics it seems common knowledge in the trade that VAG products are far from great,
I fancied a Golf next but I just can't bring myself to look at VAG products
 
Volvo's and Fords have always served us well, so I am pondering on a C30 which is basically a Ford Focus in a pretty frock and Volvo engine I'm informed
 

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