Are german cars still considered premium?
- Thread starter Dominic-Toretto
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Yup bought my Abarth Punto at the end of PCP too, end of the day PCP came with finance incentives and something silly like 1% APR, so why not, it was only a £15k car 10yrs ago, had to pay something like 7k to keep it after 4yrs, it was still under warranty until the 5th year and had been completely reliable so why not, not much else would better it at 7k, even now at what I consider end of life they are going for ~6-7k in my age and spec, cheap car. Entering in to a new deal at end of PCP was just throwing money away for the sake of something new.
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I wanted to modify my 5 so i bought it at the end of the pcp - it now has 4 exhausts and loads of other toys.
Please tell me it's not a 520D
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er no, something more than half a ton lighter.
This.
I think that people like to consider their car to be premium, regardless of whether or not it is, for example the amount of Audi drivers who rave about their re-badged Skoda. I wouldn't mind, but most German cars that I get in (all brands) seem to feel utterly miserable black, or blinged up with tacky plastic nastiness.
As Fox has said, above all, they've been cost cutting to reduce genuine prices when compared to inflation, which is great for sales, but results in the profusion of daga daga 2ltr diesels dragging along overweight bling. Lastly, genuine engineering quality seems to be decreasing. Both of the Indy's that I use have slagged off the increase in the use of cheap components that are now more likely to be snap at over 60k.
Still, all helps with the ego driven to keep up with the neighbours.
I'd say that VW and Audi are fairly premium as brands? Higher end VWs such as Touaregs etc sit happily alongside Range Rovers and things on the local school run....and things like VW Polos and Golfs are the "go to" for young person cars over the french or japanese brands when people seem to want to uphold an image for their kids.
Audi is definitely a premium brand to me, Q7s and Q5s for example are some of the "go to" cars in their sectors, and priced accordingly
Agreed.
Some people are confusing “premium” with “luxury”. An A-Class is a premium hatch. An S63 Cabriolet is a luxury car.
Indeed. And within the VAG setup you can really feel it. Consider the Audi A3 vs. VW Golf vs. Seat Leon. All three share the same basic underpinnings, and are pretty similar cars from manufacturers owned by the same group, but stepping from my Seat Leon into my friends Golf you could feel the subtle uplift in quality and the same again to the Audi. That may not translate to reliability, but you feel it when you get into the car: the Audi just feels nicer.
Personally, I'd still go for the Seat, but YMMV.
I mostly had Japanese cars, buying my first German car this year.
No, I have not. I did have the previous generation car, AE111, though. Can't say that was great (from an interiors or luxury point of view, driving was fantastic), although it didn't have lots of options, so not a lot of buttons either.
I drove a lot of hire cars as part of my job plus inspected multiple cars from loads of manufacturers. (not German though, mostly British made and Japanese) In my experience Japanese interiors are too cluttered and un-intuitive.
It might change, especially as touch screens become more prevalent, but current generation only Mazda gets high marks from me.
I wouldn't say horrible. Much better than the equivalent french. But yeah, compared to VW group brands, you can see certain aspects where they've skimped on stuff (an example being a VW Polo door handles are soft close, so if you held the door with one hand and pulled the handle with the other and let go, it won't bang back into the door, whereas a Skoda Fabia doesn't so it bangs, or how the material that the boot shelf is made of feels much softer in a VW rather than a Skoda). All of them are although items that make a car feel more luxurious and not necessarily contribute to the actual mechanical functions.
Touch screen is worse though, compared to a physical button it's rubbish when you are moving. Even worse in cold conditions when you are wearing gloves.
But you gotta laugh at some of the so called "premium" cars when you pull up a carpet or remove a panel and see an unpainted surface. Premium but only the parts you can see
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Yeah I agree with that, all I meant was maybe instead of having 30 buttons, they'll just have the 5 important ones (i.e. windscreen defrost, ac, etc) and then they'll be less cluttered.
In the old days of no screens I didn't notice much of a difference between the interior layouts of Jap vs. Ger cars, but back then I wasn't well off enough to buy anything apart from 2nd hand Japanese cars!
My Mazda 3MPS isn't too bad, everything seems to be where it should be common sense wise. However I can see where some bits might take some bedding in or getting used to.
By contrast, the buttons on the centre console of my wifes Volvo C30 could make a sane man snap.
People mistake "premium" for durable/long lasting. The big 3 german premium car brands (i don't count VW/seat/skoda/opel) take huge care in interior quality, plastics, seat materials, construction quality etc... However all this attention does not really result in a longer lasting cars with less failures, they tend to be more complex and have more toys, hence have more costly/spectacular failures. I also think people overstate the german quality thing...
I've owned a mk2 Mazda 3MPS (and I think it's a very nice car) - if you think a mazda3 has a common sense layout, I suggest you try change the language of your car (fyi you have to do it in 3 places).
But all they do is take the interior plastic panels and wrap them in something. You don't get REAL luxury unless you spend mega money, not a modern car.
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Likewise, I bought my first new car last year and it was an MX-5. Always bought BMW's in the past. I remember some years having an issue with one and was told pretty much they're not as well built as they once were vs the competition, so, not far ahead as they once were.MX-5 is the only car I ever bought brand new. If I didnt have an Elise I'd have another
Its a sports car without the usual problems of owning a sports car (expensive or hard to find parts and maintenance).
Always been a bit of a BMW fan but wanted a change this time. Not much of the current range appeals to me to be honest, especially when I wanted a sportscar again.
MX-5 is a great car and IMO as well built as any of the modern BMW's I've owned! Think the current model looks gorgeous and nice to have something lightweight and cheap to run vs the German options. I like the simple things about it too, such as opening the bonnet and seeing an engine rather than a load of plastic covering.
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i Hear the new corolla is meant to be very good in every department so I’m willling to bet that’s a better idea than any of those.