Vorsprung durch Technik

Robbo · 17 Apr 2015 at 01:15

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

Surely the last part makes the whole thing a bit pointless? Shock as nicer, more advanced cars cost more to fix on average.

adam cool dude · 17 Apr 2015 at 03:06

Gaygle said:
From looking at the top 100 it appears that making reliable cars goes hand in hand with making dull, tedious, boring cars.

Audi's are not boring as well?

Fact is most premium brands of today spend a lot more of their budget on interior and glitz where as the Japanese do it the other way. Everything is built to a price. Premium isn't like what it was 30 years ago where its business model was to build cars that last!

Blackhawk47 · 17 Apr 2015 at 06:25

adam cool dude said:
Audi's are not boring as well?

Fact is most premium brands of today spend a lot more of their budget on interior and glitz where as the Japanese do it the other way. Everything is built to a price. Premium isn't like what it was 30 years ago where its business model was to build cars that last!

Lol you stick to your jap crap then and I will stick with my german whips.

George Hincapie · 17 Apr 2015 at 08:23

VW are not in the same bracket as Audi and BMW; I don't know why one of the posters above thinks they are.

I also don't think you can broadbrush an entire brand as boring or exciting. Surely most of them will have models that could comfortably fit into either category? Personal perception will play a huge part in that as well.

Conscript · 17 Apr 2015 at 08:43

German cars do appear to suffer the most indicator failures.

Housey · 17 Apr 2015 at 08:52

George Hincapie said:
VW are not in the same bracket as Audi and BMW; I don't know why one of the posters above thinks they are.

In terms of image and price I'd agree, but in terms of build they are every bit as good in my experience. One thing VW do well is build a tight, well screwed together motor car, my family all have them and the one I had for my wife, arguably the one they built the worst in terms of plastic quality for many years, the Mk5 GTi was really well put together and always felt it. I think their reputation for quality is well earned actually.

Housey · 17 Apr 2015 at 08:52

These surveys are pointless, frankly. They are not worth the paper they are written on.

iaind · 17 Apr 2015 at 08:58

Housey said:
In terms of image and price I'd agree, but in terms of build they are every bit as good in my experience. One thing VW do well is build a tight, well screwed together motor car, my family all have them and the one I had for my wife, arguably the one they built the worst in terms of plastic quality for many years, the Mk5 GTi was really well put together and always felt it. I think their reputation for quality is well earned actually.

The price gap is shockingly close, as I discovered when I looked at the new Passat

Passat GT 2.0 BiTDI 4Motion comes to about £37k, closer to 40 if you want any nice options
Audi A6 Avant S Line 3.0 TDI Quatto is only £4k more at £41k, although I've not compared standard kit, I expect if they were like for like the difference would be closer still

Thirty Seven thousand pounds for a Volkswagen. Given those prices, who in their right mind would pick the dull as ditchwater Passat?

The brand has become a weird anomaly where people buying Golfs and telling everyone that it's basically an Audi are driving up the price so much that it wont be long until the "peoples car" is more expensive than the premium car.

George Hincapie · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:00

Housey said:
In terms of image and price I'd agree, but in terms of build they are every bit as good in my experience. One thing VW do well is build a tight, well screwed together motor car, my family all have them and the one I had for my wife, arguably the one they built the worst in terms of plastic quality for many years, the Mk5 GTi was really well put together and always felt it. I think their reputation for quality is well earned actually.

I am not disputing VW build quality; we owned a Passat estate before our XC90 and it was fine.

adam cool dude · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:12

Blackhawk47 said:
To be fair my Audi TT has had no repair works or history of repairs at all (well, anything that is the fault of the car). It is now 3 years old with 52k miles.

Didn't you break the wiper spindle while trying to adjust the wiper blade?

Dogbreath · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:14

Amusing to see Rover sitting well above Audi in the brand chart

I can't say it surprises me though, lots of people at work come over and ask me about problems with their cars and VAG owners have by far the most problems, often recurring problems that dealers can't fix as well.

VAG are exceptional at designing what appear to be top quality, solidly built cars, but IME this quality is often only skin deep.

Freefaller · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:25

Glad to see my love for Japcrap is worthwhile!

Then again I always have believed that Jap cars were among the world's more reliable.

Scania · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:27

iaind said:
dull as ditchwater

I always thought the term was dish water....

Housey · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:31

iaind said:
The price gap is shockingly close, as I discovered when I looked at the new Passat

Passat GT 2.0 BiTDI 4Motion comes to about £37k, closer to 40 if you want any nice options
Audi A6 Avant S Line 3.0 TDI Quatto is only £4k more at £41k, although I've not compared standard kit, I expect if they were like for like the difference would be closer still

Thirty Seven thousand pounds for a Volkswagen. Given those prices, who in their right mind would pick the dull as ditchwater Passat?

The brand has become a weird anomaly where people buying Golfs and telling everyone that it's basically an Audi are driving up the price so much that it wont be long until the "peoples car" is more expensive than the premium car.

Be mad to pay that. My brother in law bought a CC (since written off, sadly) and got it for 18K new my father in law a Pay-**** and I think that was 20K will all bells and whistles. Big discounts if you buy sensibly and both were cash buyers.

Housey · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:33

Freefaller said:
Glad to see my love for Japcrap is worthwhile!

Then again I always have believed that Jap cars were among the world's more reliable.

As the pioneers of zero defect manufacturing that isn't surprising. My limited experience of Jap cars is the feel cheap and use crummy plastics that don't have the same subjective feel of quality of the Bosh, but they do seem to make a car that goes and goes......and rattles.

Freefaller · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:37

Yeah completely agree - it's less plush for sure, but that's why they invented VTEC - so you couldn't hear the rattles as you're screaming over 9000RPM

Housey · 17 Apr 2015 at 09:40

I have to say though and completely off topic, I have rather fallen for the Lexus IFA, which is odd as when it came out I was very meh about it and thought it madly priced but the more I see them and certainly hear them, the more I appreciate how special a car that is.

delta0 · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:02

Go Honda!

Wish the other half would come around to an S2000..

Gambisk · 17 Apr 2015 at 10:06

delta0 said:
Go Honda!

Wish the other half would come around to an S2000..

haha I came here to post just that, my civic has been rock solid. I'd love to replace the other halfs C1 with something wildly impractical and a S2000 is top of that list.

Blackhawk47 · 17 Apr 2015 at 11:30

adam cool dude said:
Didn't you break the wiper spindle while trying to adjust the wiper blade?

Yes it turns out it was autoglass' fault. Thats why I said 'not the fault of the car' M8.