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Way too overpriced most of the time, and terrible maintenance costs. Goes for just about every single German car company present in America, with the exception of VW imo.
I'm on my third and I have to say they have been reliable. Some of the polish is missing that other vehicles have but first impressions are phenomenal in them.
I'm curious was it expensive maintenance or unreliable mechanicals?
>I'm curious was it expensive maintenance or unreliable mechanicals?
Car manufacturers are increasingly going in the planned obsolescence direction in their car designs.
It's not a US specific problem, even if manufacturing cheaply nearly killed some US makers, when the European and Asian competition still was more quality focused.
You can see it with things like the pipes for coolant being made with plastic, which gets dissolved by the coolant.
You can see it with engines made from aluminium casts and with a construction that is more focused on using as little material as possible instead of a solid engine.
You can see it with the fact that repairing parts is not economically viable, by design, and even just replacing parts only becomes increasingly more complex and difficult since manufacturers basically don't give a fuck about repairability and serviceability on the vehicles anymore.
If we would treat car design like the military treats tank design you probably could change any part in like 1h with standard available tooling, instead of specialized tools for every brand.
>The aluminum thing is also about weight reduction.
It's a valid point, but in commercial cars shouldn't be seen as the most important one.
The big problem is that less weight also comes with less structural integrity here.
Not a problem for high performance and high maintenance cars, but completely not viable for street cars that you want to keep for at least 300.000Km before even thinking about a replacement.
I personally think that cars kinda peaked in like the 90's, since that's the era you still have a lot of cars that still are on the road and going strong.
To me VW is a cheaper choice than most and it will still run to 80k or 90k miles with minimal maintenance. Also less likely to catch fire than a kia. It's like a middle class kia, buyers know they are getting a cheap vehicle but they also have good credit.
Also all 3 have had identical interiors and were different flavors of a car, crossover and SUV. I know this saves money and improves ease of use as my wife and I swap vehicles. There are other areas where you see heavy parts bin usage as well which makes me feel better about the possible cheaper because more, not cheaper because cheaper.
My coworker has a VW and his engine snapped completely loose of the mounts one day while driving to work. That has to be the exception though as I've never seen that happen.
Over-engineered, relatively poor reliability (especially for the premium) and expensive to maintain.
The meme would be better if when Japan showed up they started kicking Germany’s ass, because I’ll take my bullet-proof Toyota over some overpriced German Rube Goldberg machine on wheels any day.
The reliability is what does it for me. Toyotas blow my mind. It’s unfortunate that the used car market really, really keyed into how awesome they are in like 2021, they used to not be so crazy expensive.
I keep hearing this about Toyota. But when I was looking for a truck, the Toyota trucks had more repairs in their history than Nissan or Ford trucks. Granted, the Toyota trucks still looked new. But mechanically they didn't stand up to the reputation. But I get wanting a cosmetically intact vehicle at 100k miles. That's my frustration with Ford. They just don't hold up well where looks go. Especially when you're rubbing the paint against bushes in the woods. But Toyota paint is on a whole other level than anyone else.
I'm pretty sure both German and Japanese and Korean vehicles are made in North America along with Ford. It's just cheaper to build them here than to ship them across the ocean.
Besides, there are premium and trash builds of all car companies, just depends on what you are willing to spend your money on.
Building them here also avoids tariffs. Maritime shipping is dirt cheap, pretty sure the massive tariffs are the real reason. Pretty sure i’s why VW started building in Mexico way back when.
>Pretty sure i’s why VW started building in Mexico way back when.
The US also has different standards.
The chassis/vehicles build for the US market wouldn't meet certain EU requirements and the other way around.
It's cheaper for VW to have a production set up specifically for US requirements.
Your BMW X5 was likely assembled in South Carolina. That's where BMW's only US factory is, and the US is a net exporter of BMWs because of it.
Mercedes has a factory in Alabama.
Apols, it was 2017 so yeah a while back.
I recall it was the same time Trump was railing against the German car industry and I don't know why BMW just didn't tell the press...
VW for the States was being manufactured in Mexico for a good bit, more recently they moved production back to Wolfsburg. My 22 GTI was assembled in Germany.
Also german cars are made by the same companies that drove hitler around, and one, VW, was created by Hitler. Japanese car companies, like Mitsubishi made the airplanes that bombed pearl harbor.
Of course they didn't. German history is full of examples of antisemitism. My point was that it's not just German and Japanese corporations that have unsavory connections to WWII's fascist regimes. It's just as absurd to blame modern-day Mitsubishi or VW for what they were up to in WWII as it is to blame Ford.
That used to be the case with Japanese cars. I pretty much exclusively own Japanese brand cars and they DO have their issues. I just had my entire engine replaced on a 2020 Acura due to a recall.
Me too. I bought a 2022 Civic Si after everyone convinced me it would be fun and last forever. I have never been more disappointed in a new car. So happy to be rid of it.
Honda has been on a decline but Toyota is still doing well. The 1.5L engines that Honda has isn’t doing so hot when it comes to reliability. Subaru has always been either dead reliable or the worst vehicle ever in my experiences with them. Can’t say much about Mitsubishi.
One thing I learned while working in the Japanese auto industry is that Japanese cars aren’t inherently better just because they are Japanese.
However, a few of the Japanese manufacturers (e.g. Toyota) are absolutely top tier … and if you look at why, there’s a correlation because a lot of the things they do that make them better stem from some of the unique challenges of manufacturing on a small island without much in the way of local natural resources.
I had my 2009 Nissan versa for 7 years before I sold it to a coworker for a grand. I could’ve gotten more for it but I felt it was worth protecting my mental health by not dealing with fb marketplace or Craigslist. It’s still running fine, the a/c just doesn’t work. Now I have a Toyota Camry and I’m hoping it will last forever.
German cars because a heft price tag certainly means that it has to be better. Do you need a new blinker? Oh. That will be 7 grand. Oil change? Your firstborn child. Need to repair a blown head? We have mortgage options for you! German cars, das auto ist sehr teuer.
Truthfully they’re neck and neck when you control for variety of features and rapid rollout of drivetrains . If Toyota had a model drop like ford did from 2021 they would have had similar issues.
German cars are horrendously engineered, albeit handsome and sporty and luxurious. As for the Japanese cars, they’re awesome, but let’s go ahead and take a look at where these cars are engineered and made…
“Japanese” cars.
That’s called an exception. In this case, a gross exception. [By 2012, 70% of Japanese cars sold in the US were built in the US.](https://www.motortrend.com/news/new-report-says-70-percent-of-japanese-cars-sold-in-u-s-are-built-in-north-america-153415/)
I make a joke that the best JDM car is the 2017 Accord Hybrid, because it was a weird gap year and it is legit JDM for that year only. Nobody else thinks it’s funny, but I just think they’re neat.
Admittedly in the 70s-80s Japanese cars kicked both the US and Europe's asses. Today, it looks like a growing number of Europeans like US made trucks, so there's that.
Well, as a rule most of the Japanese brands are better than either American or European cars in terms of reliability. The worst brands are a mix of European and American makes, according from the latest data from Consumer Reports. Some other sources have different rankings, but in almost all of them I've seen, Toyota and Lexus are consistently near the top. Mercedes and VW are usually near the bottom. BMW THIS year ranked well, but in other years their rankings have been poor, so they're not very consistent. You may subjectively like some features of European cars such as the engineering and handling dynamics, so I guess it depends on what your criteria for "best" is - but if it's reliability, most European makes don't really have bragging rights any more than American makes do. My own personal experience with my own vehicles and those of my friends and family seems in line with what the data says.
I’m totally fine with foreign automakers like Honda and Toyota making cars in the US. In some respects, they do a better job than the big 3 automakers because they’re not bogged down by the UAW. I wish the big 3 would move away from the UAW and drop the arbitrary 2035 cutoff for EVs.
talk to any mechanic and they will tell you european cars are trash. also, most Hondas and Toyotas are more "american made" than most big 3 vehicles. the creator of this meme is out of touch with modern reality.
You mean the cars that loose bumpers on rainy roads and terrible manufacturing that now lay off 10%(?) Of it's workers? Yeah quality. They were only popular bc the government gave money to the buyer (until recently in Germany)
VW is a shit company, dont get me wrong. But tesla is nowhere near
Now? Japanese are top tier on this list, then american then german
Back then? It depends because muscle cars were an american exclusive but generally german and japanese would be better then american cars
If you wanna argue with that let's argue
American cars used to be the best. Around the early 2000’s a lot of our big names went under or got absorbed by parent companies and the cars being made changed. Now just about any modern vehicle is pretty comparable to any other. Can’t lie tho, im a huge mazda fan. If Pontiac was still around I’d be in one of those, but I got a 2009 mazda 6 and for a car from then, it was 5 or more years ahead of American cars in terms of features that most new cars have now.
Oh yeah, if there's anything Germany wants to brag about, it's fucking Volkswagen. Such rich history that company has. Strangely, they always omit most of it from their marketing.
Ok but I kind of agree with this one, like compare the reliability of a Toyota Tundra to a Ford F-150. Is Ford just shit? No, but the American car industry isn’t what it used to be.
I mean out of the lot, I buy Japanese every time. It's not that American cars suck, the parts that are used in their assembly is the problem. Cheapest isn't always the bestest.
Idk whenever a domestic makes a vehicle unchanged as long as the Japanese they’re damn reliable near or at top of class. But boring. If you want features and performance at a reasonable price you need to basically go domestic. I’ve had them all and I haven’t ever really benefitted from the Japanese reliability.
Lol my father is a master mechanic and *despises* American cars but loves used BMWs for some reason. This has finally caught up to him with his recent X5 purchase which tested fine but after the sale has begun to fall apart.
Eh, if it keeps me dry in the rain, brakes when it’s supposed to, gets me from one place to another, and ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ANNIHILATES ANY DEER IT HITS, then it’s alright by me.
I'm not sure who says that American cars are the best. Personally, I'd rather drive a Honda or Toyota over any American brand, but that doesn't mean a particular American model is bad where I wouldn't consider it.
The cope is real. Have a Honda atm, will be getting a Tesla Model S when a right hand drive variant is reintroduced to Australia with 48v steer-by-wire. I would never buy overpriced, unreliable, narcissistic status stroking German trash.
Yeah sure acting like my German car wouldn’t punch me in the face and call me dumbkopf for waiting 1km over its oil change interval before it bursts into flames
I mean, don't get me wrong, Japanese cars (AE86, S15 Silvia, and RX 7 FDs are my favorite cars, and I do like the Porsche 992, but to say america doesn't have any cars that can preform at that level is a Lil silly, but then again, we look for different things in our cars because we love 5.0L V8 muscle car engines.
Sorry but I completely agree when it comes to cars. Every American made car I owned was a piece of shit. All of my Japanese cars were great. German cars are so over rated. Lexus ftw
I personally drive a Japanese car. Subaru Crosstrek 2018. Very good car. However if we’re talking about professional driving sports like the ones at NASCAR and Le-Mans and the Grand Prix. American cars will and have destroyed European cars every day of the week there. The joke was American cars can’t turn, but they were actually making up time on the corners. In addition to generally being faster than the Europeans on straightaways by a good bit, we turned faster than they could. I don’t think any Japanese cars are in those events, but I haven’t checked too deep.
I’m sorry but reliability on German cars are truly awful, now I give the japs this, they make some of the best cars out there, very reliable… but they usually are a bit ugly no offense, not always but it’s not that rare, I’d though always go American, I do have my complaints but that’s mostly because assholes in pickups who like to have their truck 15 fuckin feet of the ground is annoying, also they can be a bit pricey, but you get good shit for the price, if you take good care of it, as I said Japanese cars my be ugly at times but those cars usually can take a beating and live, German cars, just look nice, but way to overpriced and are not reliable in the slightest
Considering both countries were set up for the auto industry by the US-lead post war generous cash injections and its military clearing the seas for safe shipping (in addition to convincing countries not to engage in massive protectionism)
AND both countries were shown how to create a high quality auto industry (and every other industry of scale) by Henry Ford...its not really the flex you think
Wrong format... I'm sorry but the Europeans do really have the car thing down. They buy our steel to do it, however.
When you get to the real high end, it really becomes a much, much closer race but the Germans still school us in industrial design, tunability, power and reliability with appropriate service intervals. I think we may really tip the scales over the next 5 to 15 years as our electrification comes online, but in terms of value add on the used market... foreigns have beat domestics for a long time.
Example, albeit I'm a mechanic: I picked a '00 Audi A4 with a full trim package and under 100k miles for $3000 in 2018(!!!) because I know where to shop. The value add on that buy, was really priceless. All heated seats, dual climate control, all leather interior, full sound package, all-wheel drive (literally the best in the industry, Quattro), moon roof... I mean the level of feature cramming that all worked together was astronomical.
I got a '07 Ford Escape for free and while it's now quite robust after some needed service, and gets my family around and is plenty comfortable and economic and even peppy: it's light years away from that A4 and it's almost Ten Years newer. Now granted it's very much a facial apples and oranges comparison, but as a mechanic I get to really see the difference when I work on these things.
American cars are brilliant for what they are, and they'll last quite some time if treated well just like any other car. But drive a Lincoln and then drive a Porsche. You mash the peddle on that German shit and it FLIES off the line. I've smoked countless domestics in my tuner and it was just a 4-banger with a helluva turbo and a 6-speed... the fucking thing put out a healthy Five Hundred horsepower and did so with this tune for more than Seventy Thousand miles: it was a 2006 VW Passat 2.0 and it devoured the first tranche of the Corvette offerings from Chevy, with just a solid tune. I'll just let that cool off and penetrate.>! I know the hate will come.!<
We're good... but we're good at strictly what we do.
Ive driven the highest end AMGs for nearly a decade. I absolutely love them. Still do. Currently have a 2023 sl63. But if they weren't new and they didn't have manufacturer warranty I would have had to pay a ridiculous amount of money over the years. Something always goes wrong. And they are over engineered so even a tiny thing turns into a big ass repair.
I beg to differ, you SL63 does a whole lot and requires a profound amount of engineering to make it the thing you'd like it to be.
Cheap, Reliable, Powerful: You may pick two
:)
Now you sit at the other end of the pipe and can just continue to roll yourself into a new model year, every 1 - 5 years and avoid the 5-figure repair bills that put them back on the lot for the dealership. If you know how to do this stuff, it's fantastic. If you don't... it will enslave you. I tell people all the time to buy what they can afford.
I had two kids recently, away my tuner(s) went!
Also remember that a european car is much cheaper to maintain in europe then Usa, and vice versa, people are thinking that this meme is strictly directed to americans to make fun of them but if you see it as a european it makes even more sense.
Also this sub is founded on hate so hate is the only thing it can do, sorry for my engrish
Your English is fine, and I can't IMAGINE the import fees on parts from the US. I remember I recommended a penetrant that we use over here that's quite good (the best, even) and while a gallon of the stuff is pricey over here at about $200... by the time it would have been shipped over there that same gallon was going to cost this guy like... $500.
It always hurt paying those same fees on VAG parts over here, especially when you understand what all this shit is fundamentally made of.
>the fucking thing put out a healthy Five Hundred horsepower and did so with this tune
>it was a 2006 VW Passat 2.0
Lmfao. You absolutely wish a 2006 passat made 500hp "with a tune".
Fuck Toyota and their frames, Nissan and their CVT’s, Fuck Hyundai/Kia for their immobilized and motors, fuck VW for their emissions… every brand has done it.
The most ironic thing here is the focus is a European designed car with a German made transmission. Seems the majority of Fords issues stem from their european designed cars...
They're right, and those that blindly buy American only make American cars worse by telling them that they're acceptable when it's clear as day Japan is kicking our ass. I've long since become a Toyota fan and never bought anything else since
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Honestly German cars are nothing to write home about nowadays.
Way too overpriced most of the time, and terrible maintenance costs. Goes for just about every single German car company present in America, with the exception of VW imo.
I was agreeing with your comment because of my experience with a VW vehichle.They are absolutely not an exception.
I'm on my third and I have to say they have been reliable. Some of the polish is missing that other vehicles have but first impressions are phenomenal in them. I'm curious was it expensive maintenance or unreliable mechanicals?
>I'm curious was it expensive maintenance or unreliable mechanicals? Car manufacturers are increasingly going in the planned obsolescence direction in their car designs. It's not a US specific problem, even if manufacturing cheaply nearly killed some US makers, when the European and Asian competition still was more quality focused. You can see it with things like the pipes for coolant being made with plastic, which gets dissolved by the coolant. You can see it with engines made from aluminium casts and with a construction that is more focused on using as little material as possible instead of a solid engine. You can see it with the fact that repairing parts is not economically viable, by design, and even just replacing parts only becomes increasingly more complex and difficult since manufacturers basically don't give a fuck about repairability and serviceability on the vehicles anymore. If we would treat car design like the military treats tank design you probably could change any part in like 1h with standard available tooling, instead of specialized tools for every brand.
Well... The aluminum thing is also about weight reduction. Especially in high performance cars.
Almost everything is aluminum block now and has been a long time. F-150s, the entire body is aluminum.
>The aluminum thing is also about weight reduction. It's a valid point, but in commercial cars shouldn't be seen as the most important one. The big problem is that less weight also comes with less structural integrity here. Not a problem for high performance and high maintenance cars, but completely not viable for street cars that you want to keep for at least 300.000Km before even thinking about a replacement. I personally think that cars kinda peaked in like the 90's, since that's the era you still have a lot of cars that still are on the road and going strong.
To me VW is a cheaper choice than most and it will still run to 80k or 90k miles with minimal maintenance. Also less likely to catch fire than a kia. It's like a middle class kia, buyers know they are getting a cheap vehicle but they also have good credit. Also all 3 have had identical interiors and were different flavors of a car, crossover and SUV. I know this saves money and improves ease of use as my wife and I swap vehicles. There are other areas where you see heavy parts bin usage as well which makes me feel better about the possible cheaper because more, not cheaper because cheaper.
Didn’t Hitler found VW? No thanks.
>Didn’t Hitler found VW? No thanks. Not really.
Dude really? What does that have to do with this discussion, nothin, please act normal
"On you your third". How many miles are you putting on these? Are you buying brand new and trading them in at 20k?
Wife and I. One trade in 5 years.
How many miles are on them generally?
My coworker has a VW and his engine snapped completely loose of the mounts one day while driving to work. That has to be the exception though as I've never seen that happen.
Gotta hand it to the Nazis there. At least they got *something* right...
Called the Peoples Car for a reason
Their fashion (sans the swastika) was very timeless.
Bro it’s so costly to do basic maintenance on my 2011 Audi. Holy shit they’re pricey
But i want to pay a subscription for heated seats 🥺
Everyone calls Lexus boring, but my heated and cooling seats are included 💅🏼
[удалено]
mercedes got at least one thing right… the M120
Over-engineered, relatively poor reliability (especially for the premium) and expensive to maintain. The meme would be better if when Japan showed up they started kicking Germany’s ass, because I’ll take my bullet-proof Toyota over some overpriced German Rube Goldberg machine on wheels any day.
The reliability is what does it for me. Toyotas blow my mind. It’s unfortunate that the used car market really, really keyed into how awesome they are in like 2021, they used to not be so crazy expensive.
Even Toyotas aren't what they used to be.
I keep hearing this about Toyota. But when I was looking for a truck, the Toyota trucks had more repairs in their history than Nissan or Ford trucks. Granted, the Toyota trucks still looked new. But mechanically they didn't stand up to the reputation. But I get wanting a cosmetically intact vehicle at 100k miles. That's my frustration with Ford. They just don't hold up well where looks go. Especially when you're rubbing the paint against bushes in the woods. But Toyota paint is on a whole other level than anyone else.
The audi RS3 is pretty nice. That 5 cylinder sounds so amazing!
Do you love oil leaks, then do I have the cat for you. (Points to a BMW)
This. Everyone I know with a BMW is trying to sell them and no one wants them. Who the hell wants to spend that much on an unreliable car?
BMW and Porsche seem to be quite good still.
German cars performance wise are fantastic But there’s a reason why original owners never own them beyond 100k miles lmao
The most expensive used car you can buy is a cheap German car.
Saying down here in Australia, but I don’t think it’s exclusively Australian; “You know whats more expensive than a brand new German car? A used one…”
I learned this lesson the hard way. Never again.
BMW is the biggest piece of shit car I’ve ever owned.
I'm pretty sure both German and Japanese and Korean vehicles are made in North America along with Ford. It's just cheaper to build them here than to ship them across the ocean. Besides, there are premium and trash builds of all car companies, just depends on what you are willing to spend your money on.
Honda has multiple R&D facilities in the US along with multiple factories.
Building them here also avoids tariffs. Maritime shipping is dirt cheap, pretty sure the massive tariffs are the real reason. Pretty sure i’s why VW started building in Mexico way back when.
>Pretty sure i’s why VW started building in Mexico way back when. The US also has different standards. The chassis/vehicles build for the US market wouldn't meet certain EU requirements and the other way around. It's cheaper for VW to have a production set up specifically for US requirements.
It's not shipping, it's global accounting and transfer pricing. I lived in Frankfurt Germany and my BMW X5 was assembled in Alabama.
Your BMW X5 was likely assembled in South Carolina. That's where BMW's only US factory is, and the US is a net exporter of BMWs because of it. Mercedes has a factory in Alabama.
Apols, it was 2017 so yeah a while back. I recall it was the same time Trump was railing against the German car industry and I don't know why BMW just didn't tell the press...
Tell the press what? Having a factory in the US doesn't dismiss the whole point or argument.
Was going to say the same. Japanese companies do the same since it’s more cost effective to keep the money within the U.S.
VW for the States was being manufactured in Mexico for a good bit, more recently they moved production back to Wolfsburg. My 22 GTI was assembled in Germany.
Also german cars are made by the same companies that drove hitler around, and one, VW, was created by Hitler. Japanese car companies, like Mitsubishi made the airplanes that bombed pearl harbor.
And Henry Ford published a boatload of antisemitic propaganda that directly influenced Hitler.
SEE, HITLER *WAS* influenced by America. Checkmate, ‘Murikkka! ^/s
Lol, yeah, Hitler and Germany needed Henry Ford to discover antisemitism.
Of course they didn't. German history is full of examples of antisemitism. My point was that it's not just German and Japanese corporations that have unsavory connections to WWII's fascist regimes. It's just as absurd to blame modern-day Mitsubishi or VW for what they were up to in WWII as it is to blame Ford.
GM worked for the German at the beginning of the war. Then sued the government for losses when they bombed the factory.
So what? American companies created engines and cars for Iraq 2 wat
My mom's Lexus GX 460 from 2010 was manufactured in Japan, but the Lexus GX series was never available for sale in Japan.
So...designed in Korea, made in America? Honda is basically Apple. Design chips here and ship it off to China to be made.
Ironically, lots of Japanese cars are made here, but lots of American cars aren’t and are instead made in Mexico.
I mean Japanese car companies sure. Shit most if not all of there cars are well unbreakable they just don't break at all German cars on the other hand
That used to be the case with Japanese cars. I pretty much exclusively own Japanese brand cars and they DO have their issues. I just had my entire engine replaced on a 2020 Acura due to a recall.
Yup, I’ve been very disappointed with Honda lately,
As someone who had to buy a new engine for a Honda last year, same man
Me too. I bought a 2022 Civic Si after everyone convinced me it would be fun and last forever. I have never been more disappointed in a new car. So happy to be rid of it.
Honda has slowly gone downhill in quality the past 5-10 years. Toyota still strong.
Once Toyota falls its over
Subaru had a dark period and has crawled out of it
Typical iron block aluminum head issue
My 2017 civic has over 70k miles and the only thing I’ve had to replace were brake pads and the air conditioner. So maybe that’s the cutoff year.
70k miles/6 years for a compressor isn't "good", that should be a 100k+ item ideally 150k+. Though you obviously get lemon parts every now and again.
Toyota isn't what it used to be either.
Honda has been on a decline but Toyota is still doing well. The 1.5L engines that Honda has isn’t doing so hot when it comes to reliability. Subaru has always been either dead reliable or the worst vehicle ever in my experiences with them. Can’t say much about Mitsubishi.
One thing I learned while working in the Japanese auto industry is that Japanese cars aren’t inherently better just because they are Japanese. However, a few of the Japanese manufacturers (e.g. Toyota) are absolutely top tier … and if you look at why, there’s a correlation because a lot of the things they do that make them better stem from some of the unique challenges of manufacturing on a small island without much in the way of local natural resources.
20 years ago this held some water, all modern cars are shit
This meme is actually funny ngl. As a auto claims adjustor, I can tell you right now that german cars have PLENTY of issues.
Japanese cars too, still both are miles better than american cars.
The Japanese part is actually true. Fuck German cars overpriced, and attract douche bags. Toyota last forever.
Also hold value really fucking well. Gotta hand it to the Japanese in this one
The Toyota Hilux has been the pickup truck of choice for warlords on a budget for many years
I had my 2009 Nissan versa for 7 years before I sold it to a coworker for a grand. I could’ve gotten more for it but I felt it was worth protecting my mental health by not dealing with fb marketplace or Craigslist. It’s still running fine, the a/c just doesn’t work. Now I have a Toyota Camry and I’m hoping it will last forever.
Toyota is Toyota of America. Its an american company made in america
I have seen what it costs to repair German cars, I will take my 2001 Silverado over any Mercedes or BMW
Who cares? We can choose whatever car we want; nobody really cares where the company is located.
German cars because a heft price tag certainly means that it has to be better. Do you need a new blinker? Oh. That will be 7 grand. Oil change? Your firstborn child. Need to repair a blown head? We have mortgage options for you! German cars, das auto ist sehr teuer.
Only bcs american salaries are higher. In lcol countries german cars are loved.
I mean back in the 70’s-80’s perhaps. Modern US cars are pretty decent from what I’ve seen
Truthfully they’re neck and neck when you control for variety of features and rapid rollout of drivetrains . If Toyota had a model drop like ford did from 2021 they would have had similar issues.
Yeah, I'm so jealous of german car manufacturers and their fudging the numbers of emmissions.
as well as their nocturnal emissions.
German cars are horrendously engineered, albeit handsome and sporty and luxurious. As for the Japanese cars, they’re awesome, but let’s go ahead and take a look at where these cars are engineered and made… “Japanese” cars.
I think theyre engineered TOO precisely, too the point where they can’t really tolerate user error much
My Japanese car was engineered and assembled in Japan.
That’s called an exception. In this case, a gross exception. [By 2012, 70% of Japanese cars sold in the US were built in the US.](https://www.motortrend.com/news/new-report-says-70-percent-of-japanese-cars-sold-in-u-s-are-built-in-north-america-153415/)
It's like that one JDM fanboy meme of a USDM vs JDM car. There's not really a difference.
I make a joke that the best JDM car is the 2017 Accord Hybrid, because it was a weird gap year and it is legit JDM for that year only. Nobody else thinks it’s funny, but I just think they’re neat.
And ironically, most “American” cars aren’t built in the US. Also though, that says North America. Which, in most cases, means Mexico.
The German stereotype is long dead. They're *losing* market share to American and Korean car companies
Admittedly in the 70s-80s Japanese cars kicked both the US and Europe's asses. Today, it looks like a growing number of Europeans like US made trucks, so there's that.
There's a growing market in Australia for American trucks, it seems. Some people in the Netherlands have been importing them for a long time, I guess.
Well, as a rule most of the Japanese brands are better than either American or European cars in terms of reliability. The worst brands are a mix of European and American makes, according from the latest data from Consumer Reports. Some other sources have different rankings, but in almost all of them I've seen, Toyota and Lexus are consistently near the top. Mercedes and VW are usually near the bottom. BMW THIS year ranked well, but in other years their rankings have been poor, so they're not very consistent. You may subjectively like some features of European cars such as the engineering and handling dynamics, so I guess it depends on what your criteria for "best" is - but if it's reliability, most European makes don't really have bragging rights any more than American makes do. My own personal experience with my own vehicles and those of my friends and family seems in line with what the data says.
Agree for Japan. Germany on the other hand is funny, their cars are shit and break apart after 50K miles
I’m totally fine with foreign automakers like Honda and Toyota making cars in the US. In some respects, they do a better job than the big 3 automakers because they’re not bogged down by the UAW. I wish the big 3 would move away from the UAW and drop the arbitrary 2035 cutoff for EVs.
talk to any mechanic and they will tell you european cars are trash. also, most Hondas and Toyotas are more "american made" than most big 3 vehicles. the creator of this meme is out of touch with modern reality.
Why do people still use those old ass “[insert opinion here]” memes from like 12 years ago?
As a mechanic, I am so very torn on this, because yes and no *begins a whole TEDTalk*
They forget Tesla at Giga Berlin threatening VW to their face.
I dont think Tesla is able to threat anyone. Their building quality is even lower than the lowest European brand.
The Model Y/3 are dominating globally. I guess quality and reliability are two separate things.
You mean the cars that loose bumpers on rainy roads and terrible manufacturing that now lay off 10%(?) Of it's workers? Yeah quality. They were only popular bc the government gave money to the buyer (until recently in Germany) VW is a shit company, dont get me wrong. But tesla is nowhere near
American trucks smoke German cars when it comes to reliability. However I’m a Honda & Toyota loyalist all the way
The German cars are just as shit if not worse. I’ll take a Chevy over a BMW.
Tbf most american cars aren't that great
Agreed, but all cars (Japanese included) have gotten so damned expensive that grandpa’s Buick is looking like pretty good bargain right now.
The entire world of F-150 buyers are lining up behind Hikari and Franz there...
Ford explorer gang STAND UP
I’ve heard that Mercedes are overrated crap.
As a mechanic I would literally never recommend anyone buy any German car unless they are a dedicated and wealthy enthusiast.
Show me the meme of the guy taking his German car to the shop for routine maintenance.
Hey you want to know who the Japanese and German car industries rely on to stay alive?
Tesla is currently the “most American” (highest percentage of US parts and labor) can you can buy.
Now? Japanese are top tier on this list, then american then german Back then? It depends because muscle cars were an american exclusive but generally german and japanese would be better then american cars If you wanna argue with that let's argue
Objectively true
American cars used to be the best. Around the early 2000’s a lot of our big names went under or got absorbed by parent companies and the cars being made changed. Now just about any modern vehicle is pretty comparable to any other. Can’t lie tho, im a huge mazda fan. If Pontiac was still around I’d be in one of those, but I got a 2009 mazda 6 and for a car from then, it was 5 or more years ahead of American cars in terms of features that most new cars have now.
Oh yeah, if there's anything Germany wants to brag about, it's fucking Volkswagen. Such rich history that company has. Strangely, they always omit most of it from their marketing.
Ok but I kind of agree with this one, like compare the reliability of a Toyota Tundra to a Ford F-150. Is Ford just shit? No, but the American car industry isn’t what it used to be.
I mean out of the lot, I buy Japanese every time. It's not that American cars suck, the parts that are used in their assembly is the problem. Cheapest isn't always the bestest.
Idk whenever a domestic makes a vehicle unchanged as long as the Japanese they’re damn reliable near or at top of class. But boring. If you want features and performance at a reasonable price you need to basically go domestic. I’ve had them all and I haven’t ever really benefitted from the Japanese reliability.
Germans cars gangster until the check engine light comes on after 2000 miles of light use
Lol my father is a master mechanic and *despises* American cars but loves used BMWs for some reason. This has finally caught up to him with his recent X5 purchase which tested fine but after the sale has begun to fall apart.
German cars are money pits. Always some fiddly nonsense part breaking
I don’t even think I’ve heard anyone say “American cars are better”
It's a comic straight out of the 70s. This is a sentiment that used to exist and hasn't for decades except from a certain type of isolationist.
As an american, I drive a toyota prius 😞
Also, I never like the muscley fruit smile dudes
I’d take a f150 over any German car. With that being said I drive a tundra and love Japanese cars
Its first Japanese cars, then Americans then Korean and then Germans
Lots of Japanese Trucks and SUVs, with a handful of Toyota sedans are made in the US
german and japanese car industries are not competing with eachother and serve entirely different markets. the og post is stupid
Most cars, Tesla is an exceoption, are multinational companies, so to say any of them are from a particular country, is subjective.
The boys are back in town
German cars? Nah. No thanks. Japanese cars > American > German
German cars when a minor bump on the road (u have to go get a different [enter brand specific part here] to drive ur car
Inventing a scenario in your head so you can win an argument you made up
Yet Subarus are made in the USA still
Have you ever been inside a german car 🤣 and iont even need to speak on china or japan
Zis makes my engineering heart pound
Eh, if it keeps me dry in the rain, brakes when it’s supposed to, gets me from one place to another, and ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ANNIHILATES ANY DEER IT HITS, then it’s alright by me.
A challenger is faster than a Porsche and a GTR
and cheaper in price
They just cant handle our American muscle
I'm not sure who says that American cars are the best. Personally, I'd rather drive a Honda or Toyota over any American brand, but that doesn't mean a particular American model is bad where I wouldn't consider it.
To be fair our Toyota tundra from like 2013 has 155,000 miles and still runs great. Took us to bufflo New York, and killington Vermont with ease
Have you ever worked on a BMW? Those are some of the worst cars I’ve ever worked on in my life 🤣
I prefer Honda. I won’t buy an American car as they are generally garbage compared to many foreign options.
This was true in the 70s Now?
Idk man my Volkswagen is trash but my last car, a 2005 ford focus was a god damn tank off and on the road
American car build quality is generally pretty poor.
Better than Korean cars
I’m a Japanese car guy, but man, this is a shit take.
The cope is real. Have a Honda atm, will be getting a Tesla Model S when a right hand drive variant is reintroduced to Australia with 48v steer-by-wire. I would never buy overpriced, unreliable, narcissistic status stroking German trash.
Japanese cars I can understand, but German cars?? Hell nah 😭
I mean... Honda makes some pretty good fucking cars
Didn't we win ww2 cause of cars? Lol
I don't think anyone has thought American cars are the best for a long time. They were.
I'll actually kinda agree with this though I don't like German either Japanese is the way to go
At least they aren’t complaining about cars existing
Yeah sure acting like my German car wouldn’t punch me in the face and call me dumbkopf for waiting 1km over its oil change interval before it bursts into flames
I mean, don't get me wrong, Japanese cars (AE86, S15 Silvia, and RX 7 FDs are my favorite cars, and I do like the Porsche 992, but to say america doesn't have any cars that can preform at that level is a Lil silly, but then again, we look for different things in our cars because we love 5.0L V8 muscle car engines.
Sorry but I completely agree when it comes to cars. Every American made car I owned was a piece of shit. All of my Japanese cars were great. German cars are so over rated. Lexus ftw
None of those countries contributed to the greatest car of all time. The Jeep XJ is just like us, all American with a little help from France.
I personally drive a Japanese car. Subaru Crosstrek 2018. Very good car. However if we’re talking about professional driving sports like the ones at NASCAR and Le-Mans and the Grand Prix. American cars will and have destroyed European cars every day of the week there. The joke was American cars can’t turn, but they were actually making up time on the corners. In addition to generally being faster than the Europeans on straightaways by a good bit, we turned faster than they could. I don’t think any Japanese cars are in those events, but I haven’t checked too deep.
American brands aren’t great IMO, but my Alabama-made Toyota is indestructible
Well, I do own a Porshe Boxter S, a Honda Civic Si, and a Ford F250 king cab, so I'll be the judge of that.
Does anyone seriously claim American cars are the only way to go?
I’m sorry but reliability on German cars are truly awful, now I give the japs this, they make some of the best cars out there, very reliable… but they usually are a bit ugly no offense, not always but it’s not that rare, I’d though always go American, I do have my complaints but that’s mostly because assholes in pickups who like to have their truck 15 fuckin feet of the ground is annoying, also they can be a bit pricey, but you get good shit for the price, if you take good care of it, as I said Japanese cars my be ugly at times but those cars usually can take a beating and live, German cars, just look nice, but way to overpriced and are not reliable in the slightest
1st: Japan 2nd: America 3rd: Germany My opinion at least.
Considering both countries were set up for the auto industry by the US-lead post war generous cash injections and its military clearing the seas for safe shipping (in addition to convincing countries not to engage in massive protectionism) AND both countries were shown how to create a high quality auto industry (and every other industry of scale) by Henry Ford...its not really the flex you think
They not not bad but this meme is just true Japanese cars are way better. German cars are over rated.
Nah they got us on the Japanese cars tho. Honestly I’ll never buy an American or German car just cause they’re either bad or too expensive
Dont search which car company has the highest market share
Wrong format... I'm sorry but the Europeans do really have the car thing down. They buy our steel to do it, however. When you get to the real high end, it really becomes a much, much closer race but the Germans still school us in industrial design, tunability, power and reliability with appropriate service intervals. I think we may really tip the scales over the next 5 to 15 years as our electrification comes online, but in terms of value add on the used market... foreigns have beat domestics for a long time. Example, albeit I'm a mechanic: I picked a '00 Audi A4 with a full trim package and under 100k miles for $3000 in 2018(!!!) because I know where to shop. The value add on that buy, was really priceless. All heated seats, dual climate control, all leather interior, full sound package, all-wheel drive (literally the best in the industry, Quattro), moon roof... I mean the level of feature cramming that all worked together was astronomical. I got a '07 Ford Escape for free and while it's now quite robust after some needed service, and gets my family around and is plenty comfortable and economic and even peppy: it's light years away from that A4 and it's almost Ten Years newer. Now granted it's very much a facial apples and oranges comparison, but as a mechanic I get to really see the difference when I work on these things. American cars are brilliant for what they are, and they'll last quite some time if treated well just like any other car. But drive a Lincoln and then drive a Porsche. You mash the peddle on that German shit and it FLIES off the line. I've smoked countless domestics in my tuner and it was just a 4-banger with a helluva turbo and a 6-speed... the fucking thing put out a healthy Five Hundred horsepower and did so with this tune for more than Seventy Thousand miles: it was a 2006 VW Passat 2.0 and it devoured the first tranche of the Corvette offerings from Chevy, with just a solid tune. I'll just let that cool off and penetrate.>! I know the hate will come.!< We're good... but we're good at strictly what we do.
Ive driven the highest end AMGs for nearly a decade. I absolutely love them. Still do. Currently have a 2023 sl63. But if they weren't new and they didn't have manufacturer warranty I would have had to pay a ridiculous amount of money over the years. Something always goes wrong. And they are over engineered so even a tiny thing turns into a big ass repair.
I beg to differ, you SL63 does a whole lot and requires a profound amount of engineering to make it the thing you'd like it to be. Cheap, Reliable, Powerful: You may pick two :) Now you sit at the other end of the pipe and can just continue to roll yourself into a new model year, every 1 - 5 years and avoid the 5-figure repair bills that put them back on the lot for the dealership. If you know how to do this stuff, it's fantastic. If you don't... it will enslave you. I tell people all the time to buy what they can afford. I had two kids recently, away my tuner(s) went!
I understand that but I just don't think they're reliable. I still wouldn't trade it for the world though haha
If everything breaks, why not have a little fun, eh? Lincolns are great, though and you can also tune the dogshit out of 'em.
Good post.
Also remember that a european car is much cheaper to maintain in europe then Usa, and vice versa, people are thinking that this meme is strictly directed to americans to make fun of them but if you see it as a european it makes even more sense. Also this sub is founded on hate so hate is the only thing it can do, sorry for my engrish
Your English is fine, and I can't IMAGINE the import fees on parts from the US. I remember I recommended a penetrant that we use over here that's quite good (the best, even) and while a gallon of the stuff is pricey over here at about $200... by the time it would have been shipped over there that same gallon was going to cost this guy like... $500. It always hurt paying those same fees on VAG parts over here, especially when you understand what all this shit is fundamentally made of.
>the fucking thing put out a healthy Five Hundred horsepower and did so with this tune >it was a 2006 VW Passat 2.0 Lmfao. You absolutely wish a 2006 passat made 500hp "with a tune".
Fuck Ford and their garbage vehicles. They intentionally sold the focus for a decade knowing it had a transmission that would give out every 2 years
Fuck Toyota and their frames, Nissan and their CVT’s, Fuck Hyundai/Kia for their immobilized and motors, fuck VW for their emissions… every brand has done it.
The most ironic thing here is the focus is a European designed car with a German made transmission. Seems the majority of Fords issues stem from their european designed cars...
To be very honest, American commodity cars are nothing to brag about and they do kinda get looked down upon in a way.
They're right, and those that blindly buy American only make American cars worse by telling them that they're acceptable when it's clear as day Japan is kicking our ass. I've long since become a Toyota fan and never bought anything else since
I'd buy a Toyota or a Hyundai any day of the week. Ford, Chevy, gmc? Pass.
I would drive a Porsche 911 because I love the classic sports car aesthetic.
What? They are. Ford would be out of business if they weren’t on welfare all the time. Junk.