We’re all accustomed to the advertising tagline from the Kraut carmakers which touts “German engineering” as the selling proposition for buying one of their overpriced cars.
That doesn’t seem to be the case, as evidenced by this J.D. Power survey of not so long ago:
It’s a large sample (80,000), by the way (the full methodology can be found here).
Basically, apart from all the Kraut shenanigans involved with cartels and illegal manipulations (diesel emissions coff coff etc.), it all boils down to the Germans making their cars evermore sophisticated but in doing so, more fragile and prone to breakage.
Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, pretty much everywhere.
And people snigger when I say how much I’d prefer to drive something like a Merc 280 SL than any of their newer models…
I had a 2014 Volkswagon Jetta Sportwagen TDI … the infamous cheater diesel … it drove very nicely and I enjoyed it for the few years I had it. The knock on VW was that the sensors and electrical components would fail over time. Since mine was bought back before it reached that age, I can neither confirm nor deny that based on my experience.
My BMW’s name is “Karen”, because she’s demanding, high maintenance, and almost always unhappy.
As for the 280SL, I have always wanted one of those (or a 450SL). I test drove one about 3 years ago with cash in hand ready to buy. While my 75″ frame did fit into the seats with the top up, I discovered that the massive steering wheel was a major problem.
It’s difficult to get my legs into the car and the steering wheel pegged my right leg against the center console. I could manipulate the gas pedal, but getting from the gas to the brake in an emergency would be difficult because my knees hit the bottom of the wheel and I could barely get my foot off the floor. The owner was trying to get me to take her out on the highway but I told him I was afraid to leave the parking lot for lack of leg room.
They say never meet your heroes.
I had a coworker who bought a new BMW, and was trying to make us envious over “how good it was.” It ran M$ Windows Embedded, and after a few months that changed. The car would repeatedly blue screen and the fix was to disconnect the battery for >20 minutes. Once the system had discharged, reconnecting the battery would allow the car to reboot itself and it would work until the next blue screen.
I was thankful for my Toyota 4-banger which didn’t have those computer problems.
Advanced engineering and reliability are not the same thing. They are opposites. Advanced engineering requires failure to advance. fix and improve what broke until you have a more reliable product that still meets the design requirements. Then look for what can be improved. Rinse and repeat.
As applied to race cars by some Englishman named Chapman, ” The Ideal racecar collapses into a pile of used up parts as it enters the Paddock after winning the race. ”
German Automobile Manufactures assume the owners will scrupulously follow the Maintenace and replacement schedules developed by the Engineers. Not doing as instructed will be punished. Americans don’t even read the instructions, much less follow them.
I’m surprised Toyota did so poorly on that survey.
My experience with BMW is to get rid of it just as the warranty expires as it will get very expensive to own out of warranty. I have been down that road twice. My daughter has just purchased Volvo #3. The first was the wife’s hand-me-down 850, then a C30 for 13 years and now the small suv. All were fairly trouble free. It also depends when you purchase a particular model. The Audi we now have was a last year of that design and the drivetrain was a proven drivetrain that had been constantly updated the previous 20+ years. It is 6 years old with 70k on the clock and other than routine maintenance there has not been any issues. The number one rule in buying a car is to never get a first year model.
I used to spend a lot if time worrying about such things back when I was an automotive engineer. One thing to keep in mind is that customer expectations change based on the car. This metric measures the number of complaints, but someone buying a Mercedes or Lexis has higher expectations than someone buying a base Kia and will complain about things that the Kia owner would not even consider a problem. As an example, Chevy and Ford both score higher than their Luxury stable mates Cadillac and Lincoln, even when it is basically the same car.
There are other satisfaction metrics you have to look at as well to get the full picture.
“…it all boils down to the Germans making their cars evermore sophisticated but in doing so, more fragile and prone to breakage.”
They made the same mistake with their tanks in World War II.
“German engineering” gave me a wiring harness in my old BMW with insulation made from an econazi vegetable base rather than a petroleum base. Result: all the insulation in my headlight wiring cracked and dropped off, and of course there were no replacement harnesses, so the BMW alternative was to buy complete new headlight assemblies at ~ $2,300 each. I used the original plugs to make new harnesses using real wire.
They also spent thousands of engineering hours to design a glove box latch with 40+ parts (including fasteners), where it seems to me it should be like a simple interior door – a housing, a bolt, a spring, a lever or knob to move the bolt and a fixed striker plate. Add ~4 screws and you’re at 10 parts.
My 40 piece glove box latch has 4 bolts with spacers – lotsa fun trying to line them up while holding a spring loaded thingy and turning the screw that goes through them – 4 times! Then there are two pneumatic cylinders with tiny pins and circlips mounted way up under the dash among the dash wiring harnesses and duct work, then there’s the glory of fishing, extending, compressing the cylinder shafts under load to snap the circlips on under cylinder load. Did I mention the latch handle does NOT actuate the bolt right at the latch? Oh no, a Bowden cable goes from the latch on the drop down door, through and under the entire glove box, back up behind the glove box through the nest of duct work and wiring under the dash, over the top of the glove box, to a frame over the glove box door where the moving bolt resides.
It’s some thing like pulling a handle on your street mounted mailbox to open your front door.
No wonder Germany lost the war.
Somebody SOTI has said that if the Germans had invented the anvil it would have needed to be wound twice a day and have the oil changed three times a week.
I recently bought a new BMW i4 (yes, I know….)
One of the things that really struck me was the extent to which BMW has leached quality out of the car relative to the 1999 E36 3 series I owned back in the day.
In part it’s conscious design. No more dead trees or dead cows as my grand daughter put it. The seats are not as comfortable or adjustable as the e36.
Shutting the doors produces a sound much more live my wife’s old Honda Civic that the satisfying clunk of the old beemer.
There is so much gap between the door and the B pillar you can see the exterior paint finish.
Ok the new one has a gazillion “features” and is dramatically quicker than the e36 but to me (and I’ve owned half a dozen Beemers since that e36) BMW have lost the plot with the current offerings. The value / quality equation does not stack up.
My Brother the Leftist and his Stalinist wife bought one recently, too. He’s kept his mouth shut about such things, and AFAIK it hasn’t had to go back to the dealer for anything.