Are German cars unreliable?

[Tomy223]

I hear this from a lot of people. I am looking at Mercedes S Class.

 

[bigdaddyleon]

No, that's not true, Mercedes also has its origins in Germany

 

[Marzio]

that's not true

For sure it's not one of the most reliable 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey: Britain's most and least reliable cars

You are not buying Mercedes for reliability, if you want that, go with Honda or Toyota.

 

[Martin Everson]

Avoid modern German cars if reliability is a concern and Porsche especially if build quality is a concern based on personal experience. They simply are not what they used to be.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Each car is different, especially the high end ones. I never had any problems with MB, BMW and Lambo. I did with Bentley and Ferrari.

 

[Martin Everson]

I never had any problems with MB, BMW and Lambo. I did with Bentley and Ferrari.

Lambo and Bentley are German owned. Bentley and Lambo are just straight VAG group parts bin cars. Ferrari build quality is typical Italian poor quality its just people don't drive enough miles to care. You cannot leave a Ferrari for more than a few days off trickle charge in my experience without the dreaded parasitic battery drain issue they have never fixed

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Some cars are born with problems, others not. It goes down to luck, you can’t generalize. I have been unlucky with an Audi S6 and never had problems with all the other models I owned. Also with Bentley the Bentayga was perfect, the GT not.
EVs have much less issues, in average.

 

[jakonda]

I don't know what is going on with Mercedes but X-class is beyond horrible. All the time some computer update calls from the service center, tire pressure alerts, etc... not recommended.
BMW x6 way better experience, basically no problems at all.
Porsche is not what it used to be but FYI I am biased and prefer SUV/Offroad.
Audi I never had one but my friends are very much satisfied with performance and no complaints.

So I recommend you to go with Indian Land Rover or RR maybe ?

 

[Tomy223]

Avoid modern German cars if reliability is a concern and Porsche especially if build quality is a concern based on personal experience. They simply are not what they used to be.

So which brand is better? Aston Martin?

 

[wellington]

I hear this from a lot of people. I am looking at Mercedes S Class.

Yes, depends on climate, mine has had the handles inside replaced a few times (melt).
Just had something to do with the engine replaced because it melts and causes a fire.

40,000 klm on the clock

Have a 10 yr British Car, runs like a well oiled machine, only replaced the steering system once (annual road tax test they put it as a AWD as RWD and fucked it). Aircon topped up recently, otherwise great for climbing mountains and city driving.

Also have a 'American' brand pickup and the axel broke off going round the bend <4 yrs old (retired it to the farm estate).

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See TONNES of Chinese EVs now days, might get one of those in the future to replace German, and a hybrid British replacement (for the British one).

Brands are 'established and considered best in their class'.

 

[Tomy223]

Yes, depends on climate, mine has had the handles inside replaced a few times (melt).
Just had something to do with the engine replaced because it melts and causes a fire.

40,000 klm on the clock

Have a 10 yr British Car, runs like a well oiled machine, only replaced the steering system once (annual road tax test they put it as a AWD as RWD and fucked it). Aircon topped up recently, otherwise great for climbing mountains and city driving.

Also have a 'American' brand pickup and the axel broke off going round the bend <4 yrs old (retired it to the farm estate).

---

See TONNES of Chinese EVs now days, might get one of those in the future to replace German, and a hybrid British replacement (for the British one).

Brands are 'established and considered best in their class'.

Ahahaha. I was thinking about Hongqi

 

[wellington]

Ahahaha. I was thinking about Hongqi

Biggest issue i have here, is i have run flat tyres and i am constantly replacing sensors on the german car (200 bucks a pop), on the English one I am constantly having to put air in due to the amount of potholes.

that was the great thing about the pickup, it didn't give a s**t, well until i went round a sharp corner and it went up on two wheels and nearly slammed into the car beside me as the axel snapped off - American Quality at its finest.

 

[Martin Everson]

So which brand is better? Aston Martin?

Lol at Aston Martin.

 

[Tomy223]

Lol at Aston Martin.

For real. Toyota feels so cheap

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Lotus is better. Or Caterham if you know how to drive

 

[Martin Everson]

For real. Toyota feels so cheap

They are because they are made at a price point...lol. You want luxury get Toyota's luxury brand Lexus.

 

[Tomy223]

They are because they are made at a price point...lol. You want luxury get Toyota's luxury brand Lexus.

Not beautiful enough. I dislike Ferraris too.

They are because they are made at a price point...lol. You want luxury get Toyota's luxury brand Lexus.

Not beautiful enough. I dislike Ferraris too.

They are because they are made at a price point...lol. You want luxury get Toyota's luxury brand Lexus.

Not beautiful enough. I dislike Ferraris too.

 

[clemens]

Avoid modern German cars if reliability is a concern and Porsche especially if build quality is a concern based on personal experience. They simply are not what they used to be.

I second that. Three months later, it was the first time in the workshop; it took 2 days to get it fixed. I got a loaner car but hey, I wanted my new Mercedes. After it returned from the workshop, only 4 more months passed when I took a 1500 km trip to France. On the way, the shock absorbers broke down, and I spent 9 hours waiting to get to a workshop 800 km from home. Shortly thereafter, I again had trouble because the Mercedes workshop where it was fixed had made mistakes, so it had to go to the workshop again where I bought it. This continued for the first 8 months. Now there is peace so far! The S580 is their flagship, this should not happen.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

For sure it's not one of the most reliable 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey: Britain's most and least reliable cars

You are not buying Mercedes for reliability, if you want that, go with Honda or Toyota.

This is based on surveys and is price/expectations biased. Anyway, a 5% difference is insignificant.
The bottom line is that all cars are good in average, but all brands can have random problems. It’s just a matter of luck!
If you are unlucky and buy a car with problems, do a quick fix and resell it, or swap for the same model with a different color.

 

[Marzio]

This is based on surveys

Yes it is and it doesn't pretend to be universal thruth but based on my experience and my acquaintances experience it reflects our reality pretty closely.