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) 😋
Mercedes is no doubt among the absolute most reliable cars you can get, most Taxi drivers here use Mercedes for that reason.
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 7 months ago
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Yup. They weren’t particularly reliable, but they were cheap and parts were easily available.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 months 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 7 months 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 7 months 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.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 months 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.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
The study you provided seems to be looking at safety features some time after purchase, which has more to do with after sale service than reliability of the car.
I’m far more interested in defects causing recalls or repairs than whether people get their brakes inspected properly. Your study seems to be measuring how much people use the service warranty and the quality of that service, not whether the car is actually built well and has a reliable transmission or engine.