What Happened To Quality German Cars?

Why does the quality of the German automobile no longer match its once wonderful image? Or is this just a blip? Can the new generation of electric cars put Germany back on top?

00:00 Why have German cars become so… bad?
01:15 Quality Report: USA & Korea dominate
04:00 Dieselgate
05:00 Germany's Glory Years
07:00 Cost reduction and quality
09:00 New Tech
11:30 Shift to EVs

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REV - The Global Auto and Mobility Show from Deutsche Welle

#dwrev #mercedes #volkswagen

[Mladjasmilic]

During 1980s buying Mercedes was like buying a house - it was expensive, but if taken care, it could last you lifetime.
Now it is just waste of money

[skrevox]

Planned obsolescence. They literally design the product to last just about as long as the factory warranty. Plastic parts everywhere and an 'apple like' approach to repairability. Thats why the Japanese manufacturers outsell them (atleast outside Europe)

[Mafed]

I am German and I am a mechanic. The last german Car I've owned was a 1991 BMW 525i.
That car was almost indestructable. Sold it with almost half a million Km, just because it was to uneconomical.
Means it was a car for long distance driving, which I do not have anymore.
With newer BMWs I made the experience that you have to take apart half of the car just for minor repairs and don't dare to touch anything that is made of plastic in the engine bay. Especially coolant lines or flanges. After just a few years they get so brittle that they will break easily

[NeoAutodroid]

My family is very proud and very tradition oriented. They have all only owned BMWs with very few exceptions. I broke tradition by buying a Toyota and I couldn't have been happier with my decision. I've seen the BMWs go to the repair shop over and over again for mechanical failures despite them being relatively new; meanwhile my 11 yr old Toyota has never had a single issue. Keep your status symbol vehicles, I'll go with the more practical options.

[colombianguy]

As an engineer, I think that when car manufacturers put plastic in very important parts like water pumps, they are shooting themselves in the foot for saving some money because "the market" and the "competition", in the long run the brands suffer because reputation falls. Car brands: Just listen the engineers! They know more about reliability than the marketing department.

[amanoso]

I am Japanese born in 1974. My grandfather owned a 1973 w116 Mercedes. Compared to the Japanese cars of that time, I loved it for its perfect ride comfort and lean and elegant appearance. I think the Japanese thought that Mercedes at the time would be able to drive high quality forever if the parts were properly replaced. Golf and bmw were similarly deified. I want the old German cars back.

[Ambienfinity]

I live in the UK and drive mainly Honda and Toyotas. I love the design, performance, and particularly the refinement and interiors of German cars, and the heritage of engineering behind them. Unfortunately, what has happened is that manufacturers and their friends, the reviewers, have convinced us all that perceived quality is better than engineering quality, and the emphasis is now on appearance, and interior materials. Almost everybody I know with a German car (including my favourite Audi) has had issues with them. In my opinion, it's putting too many unnecessary systems and gadgets into them. That said, Lexus equip their cars well and the internal systems seem also to stand up to the test of time well.

[akarayan]

In the US German cars are seen as awesome, luxurious, and powerful, but also as endless money pits. They break down quickly and replacing the countless cheap plastic parts and other expensive components make them a subpar choice overall.

[CTBN]

Before it was engineer driven now it's all about marketing and their shareholders. Planned obsolescence and perceived quality is now the norm.

[mattduin]

I used to own a VW golf, when one of the parts broke i discovered it was made of plastic. The same part in a japanese car is made of metal and lasts the life of the car. From then on ive only owned Japanese cars. To me reliability means more than prestige. A car that goes for years and years and years with 0 worries? That's my idea of luxurious

[cybair]

"Planned obsolescence" is the name of the game. The manufacturers could not keep selling cars if they were so durable that the customers would not need to buy another one.

[jessestuart]

I work as a sound engineer in the US. I first learned on analog sound boards. Everything switch to digital sometime in the mid 2ks and has progressed further so that it’s hard to find analog boards. In the audio industry, reliability is way more important than feature sets. No one tolerates a concert being stopped in the middle, and having the sound engineer get on the mic and say ‘I have to reboot the sound board Sorry.’ The console manufactures debug these boards to the point where you can leave them on for weeks w/I problems. If you leave them on for a month, you have a problem. Why wouldn’t auto manufactures See the need to have a similar level of reliability? Seems like it’s more dangerous to be traveling at a high speed and have a computer crash, then it is to have a rock concert end early.

[bobibest]

Some brands need to realise that reliability is the most important aspect of luxury.

[klugermensch]

I did an internship in 2013 at a mercedes benz car dealer / workshop and was amazed how much plastic part are on these cars. Plastic clasps constantly broke and hat to be glued back on body parts. So when they say the made a new car lighter it basically means "we replaced as much metal with plastic as we could"

[Olli-Tech]

As a German living in Japan, I got a Prius, and can only recommend going with Toyota as often as possible.

[fredbarnes]

The jd powers survey is fundamentally flawed. It is not the complaints in the first year that matter, it is the percentage of cars built in a model year that are still on the road which expose the quality cars and the junk

[juliandittrich]

As a german automotive engineer I can say its not just their own choice, its also caused by a ton of regulation making the cars worse. Also managers and purchasing departments push for the cheapest options, making our products worse. The other big issue is the focus on unnecessary features and our current view of the number of features equal the luxuriousness.
Love my 90s Mercedes btw

[floydblandston]

German cars have been declining steadily since about the time of reunification. Instead of sound, basic design and metalurgy/materials, they became gimmick laden, under-tested, 200k throw away garbage. Their salvation has been that every other manufacturer has followed the same path....

[samshare]

The article pretty much nailed it. German vehicles are full of new tech and that means some ironing out of bugs and figuring out best practices (of manufacturing). There is a reason Honda and Toyota are so reliable. They wait until tech is mastered before they introduce it in their vehicles.
Mercedes = first with ABS, first with air bags, first with keyless entry, etc.
But the real push to the latest tech came in the late 90s when BMW started to do the same. Around that time, Mercedes also merged with Chrysler...and sacrificed some durability for profits. That is why late 1990s to 2010 was a bad time for Mercedes.
Tech is still a big thing with Mercedes/BMW/etc. and that means expensive repairs once out of warranty. Remember that cars depreciate with time/mileage...labor and parts DO NOT. That $100k German car will still cost like $100k German car when it comes time to service it.

[FreeSpeech]

I owned a Mercedes 1973 SLC automatic in the late 90s for 5 years. Fantastic build quality and was very reliable. Recently, i bought a Mercedes estate which is full of endless niggles and problems and the interior is plasticky and lacks refinement as well. Will buy Japanese next. Had a couple of Mazda's before and they were faultless and fun to drive.