My wife and a girl I dated before her drove VW's when I met them. Both reminded me of the American cars I grew up with in that small things kept breaking on them frequently. I laugh at those commercials where they brag about the engineering on those pieces of shit. Not a big car person and am ok with cheap/reliable. Bought my Camry XL new in 2002 and can see me driving it another decade. Got my Sienna used, but will probably get anther decade out of it too.
I had a mazda 626 for awhile and everytime I brought it into the dealership for just an oil change, they said there was something wrong else to fix. I swear the dealership was ripping me off because I was in Corvallis. I still have my 1998 Supercharged Pontiac Grand Prix, 179,000 miles+. Transmission was replaced with a new one at 159,000 miles. Stock alternator died at 159k, water pump, and CV boot all had to be replaced. Lot of the stuff I can do myself such as spark plugs, etc and order stuff at www.gmpartsdirect.com at a big discount vs at the dealership. Next vehicle will be a used GM product.
I took her for more than a test drive. But after a couple of years...... decided she was the one. Settled on the Japanese make instead.
German engineering is in a league of its own. They care not for simplicity. I swear they all get high on Peyote or something and sit around thinking of ways to complicate things unnecessarily.
Im a subaru fanatic. Love everything about them. Driven a lot of toyotas and hondas. Toyotas bore me, even though i own an older camry as my commuter car, hondas are fun but seem to be a thieves dream. Ill only buy japanese or american. Really like ford trucks. Badass.
Never had good luck with the Ford trucks, as a matter of fact, it has been so bad, I am ashamed to admit I have had so many. 1960, 1987 Ranger and 1988 350. The transmission failed badly in all of them. Add the 1965 Mustang with a blown trany to the experience.
They didnt take the govt bailouts. That alone makes them better. Plus the look of them is badass. There is not.a better truck than the ford raptor. Ive heards your same complaints about dodge and chevy too though.
Perhaps it is just crappy luck. Although I have pushed three chevy trucks over 200 thousand miles each and sold them running. Add one GMC.
It depends on the foreign country making the car. I'm buying a Swedish car soon because of their advanced engineering. I would buy a German car if the Swedish one weren't available. The only American cars I would consider buying would be a pick-up truck, a Corvette or a Tesla. Any car I buy has to be well engineered.
Still happy with the same vehicle seven years on. Minimum maintenance, regular oil changes and the Benz is still beasting.
We are mostly a foreign car family. Only American cars I had were Jeeps (3 of them). For daily driving, Asian makes the most sense (Japanese / Korean). For fun, special case, European (I will go Italian first, British second and German 3rd as far as fun to drive is concerned). Best car I ever had is my 1993 Miata which I have had for more than 20 years - I still use it as my daily driver - it is one tough little car, tons of fun to drive and the roof goes down. If I had to drive more, I would probably relegate it to weekend status - but my daily driving is limited and almost never in traffic - so I can still drive that car with manual steering, no AC etc... Most fun track car I ever had if the conditions are perfect is a Lotus 7. This is as close as one can get to an open-wheel race car that is road legal. Unfortunately - it was very hard to live with and often not fun when conditions were far from perfect. Most fun overall track/weekend car is my old Alfa Romeo GTV - but I am a serial Alfaholic - I understand that they are not for everyone. Most fun everyday sedan I ever had was my old 1991 BMW E30 - but today's BMWs are nowhere near as good as driver cars anymore.
I've had my Ford truck for the last 12 years and it's always been good to me. It's about to hit 190k miles though and I've been saving for the last few months to buy something new. Thinking about a new Ford Ranger, but I'm also waiting on the new Bronco to come out.
I drive Toyotas almost exclusively. I’m not opposed to American manufacturers though when it comes to heavier pickups, especially diesels. Some of the most reliable vehicles ever made were those diesel pickups from the 90’s.
My Chevy 2500HD diesel pickup is 16 years old. Drives like new, no problems. Not even looking at new toys, unless it floats, has a huge built in bbq and hot tub. Old retired guys need to dream to.