VW was never comparable to Toyota. The top has always been the Japanese brands, sometimes with caveats about certain transmissions (e.g. Mazda and Mitsubishi CVTs).
German cars are fine, but parts are generally hard to get or are expensive. Many shops won’t touch them, so you need to find a European imports shop.
Here’s some data from 2024, VW is fourth last, ahead of Land Rover, Audi, and Chrystler. Somehow they’re behind Luncoln… Here’s the image:
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That schematic is basically worthless, first it’s “per car”, with no mention of average age or mileage.
Mercedes is no doubt among the absolute most reliable cars you can get, most Taxi drivers here use Mercedes for that reason.
But Mercedes also on average drive longer than most other cars, because people who drive a lot tend to prefer Mercedes more.
VW only ranking a couple places above Chrysler is laughable. There is no way that can be right.
Also Audi ranking below VW is ridiculous. Audi is to VW somewhat what Lexus is to Toyota.
Something is definitely off with that chart.
But I do not deny that Hyundai may have improved enough to be as good or maybe even better than VW, What I questioned was how they could have that reputation already few years after they clearly sucked on quality. Being reasonably good now, is exactly as expected though. Because when they were bad over a decade ago, they were so bad there are probably very few left on the roads. It was not just something that needed to be fixed bad, it was very much also end of life for the vehicle bad.
I skimmed the article to find the methodology behind the numbers, but couldn’t find it.
Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 1 day ago
Audi is full of shit. Don’t chalk that pile of garbage up with Mercedes.
But, Toyota is easily better than any German brand. The reason why this just is garbage, is because Honda isn’t on top of the list.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No literally that study is worthless, there is no reliable common set standard for the results, which is probably why I can’t even find the methodology used described in the article.
The below linked article based on a TÜV study, is based on legally mandatory safety checks performed by an independent third party:
In this way more rigorous and fair study, based on security issues detected at mandatory checks, VW turns out to be #1!
So clearly Toyota is NOT easily better than VW, Audi or Mercedes, which actually all beat Toyota in an actually useful fully transparent study.
raef@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Methodology is mileage divided by money spent on repairs
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s actually a good way to measure for similar cars. But still a luxury car is obviously more expensive to repair, and that does not make it unreliable.
raef@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t know what else they might do for the formula. I just knew from somewhere back in my head that that’s the basic way they do it
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Most taxi drivers here drive a Toyota Prius, because they’re incredibly reliable and get great fuel economy.
The only people who drive Mercedes here are rich people who like the brand, or people who need a 15 passenger van, because there aren’t many options and it’s better than a Ford or Chevy.
The only people who get BMW and Audi are car enthusiasts and rich people who like the respective brands and are willing to pay for the privilege. The only people who get VW are those who are attracted by the low prices,(can get a Jetta for ~$20k because nobody wants them) and later get screwed on repairs. I almost never see VW here, they have a terrible reputation, which is amazing because everyone loved the old Beetles.
But sure, if you don’t like the stats I showed, provide your own and prove me wrong. Sales figures won’t convince me, repairability stats do.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes we’ve seen the beetle in many American movies, and every hippie group with respect for themselves drive a Volkswagen Bus. (according to Hollywood) 😋
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yup. They weren’t particularly reliable, but they were cheap and parts were easily available.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
autoparts24.dk/…/stor-undersoegelse-her-er-bilmae…
VW actually beats even Toyota, it’s a couple of years old. But I doubt this has changed much.
This is a very solid stat, for a big country, and that checks are mandatory. So not dependent on brand methodology.
For instance here Tesla is said to be the cheapest car to maintain after purchase and under warranty. But they do a piss poor job, so a whopping third of the cars fail their first mandatory safety check after 4 years. (after that it’s every 2nd year). No other brand is even close to as bad.
VW is among the more expensive, because they have very strict service requirements while under warranty. But I guarantee your chance of passing mandatory safety check is similar to the German, about 2% failure, compared to 33% failure for Tesla. The failures of Tesla are even pretty serious, like steering and brakes! While for other cars Steering is an unheard of failure.
There are many ways to make the stats, but the above study is in my opinion much more reliable than what you showed. Unfortunately we don’t have the same amount of data here.