What Happened To Quality German Cars?

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)

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

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.

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

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 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'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.

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.

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

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.

"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.

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

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"

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!!

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.

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

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.

I trust my 1962 vw bug over most newer cars on the road. With some basic maintenance, along with some restored original parts they last forever. My little 1200cc 40hp drives up and down the mountain grades, 150-mile trips one way a few days a week. I love my car!

I noticed how most German products, not just the cars have had their quality decline in the last 20-25 years. With some is more noticeable than others. It's concerning but I don't have an answer as to why. So, when I purchased my new car I didn't even look at any German brand. I went straight for a Japanese one. Better quality, better craftsmanship, same luxury specs and even lower price.