Here the picture is very different, admittedly this is a German study, but by TÜV which is a very reputable company, the biggest company responsible for mandatory car safety checks at periodic intervals.
autoparts24.dk/…/stor-undersoegelse-her-er-bilmae…
VW was never comparable to Toyota.
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.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 days 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 2 days ago
Yup. They weren’t particularly reliable, but they were cheap and parts were easily available.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Funny, because the Beetle was very reliable and durable here in Europe, both in cold Scandinavian countries, and hot south European countries. And here they were everywhere even 2 decades after production stopped. Very very durable and reliable cars for its time. Also beating way more expensive cars.
What they were not was well equipped with extras, or fast or powerful or particularly comfortable to drive, and they were also noisy.
But to say they weren’t reliable???
Did USA get some sort of second rate Beetle cars compared to Europe? Here we called it the asphalt bubble. I even have a neighbor who owns a late 70’s beetle, which still drives absolutely fine! Still with minimal maintenance!
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It really depends on the year. But generally speaking, even the bad year beetles were fine since parts were available, they just didn’t quite compare to Toyotas.
raef@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The thing about the early VWs, like the Beetle, was they couldn’t pass the updated safety standards the US passed in the early '70s: safety glass, reinforced cabin, etc.