F3A

German cars are usually regarded for their engineering, Japanese cars for their quality.
People usually expect to have more problems with German cars then with Japanese.
I wonder why?
Aren't Germans famous for their attention to the details, and quality of engineering? Why is it when it comes to cars Japanese cars are presented as trouble free and not German?
Is it just a myth?
I'm just curios...

Thanks,
-F3A

April

European cars tend to be satisfying and pleasurable on some level in an enduring way. The car is intended to be driven with some verve. Whether you drive it that way or not, it will still pretty much need maintainence as though you were driving it that hard. Parts always wear out if you push it all the time. The intention is also that you will keep the car a long time - it is not unusual to have people be first owners of an 8 year old car. So the intent is that you choose carefully, keep it a long time, and enjoy the whole experience.

The Japanese car thing seems to be to keep the first and second owner happy ( with the second owner having diminished expectations ) during a 3 year cycle for each. The car is disposable. It's meant to titilate you for a short time, and then you need to get another for that new car feel and a new round of gadgets. Because the car is not very interesting, prestigeous, fun on a basic level, most owners aren't very interested in anything beyond basic maintainence. Obviously there are exceptions.

If you keep a car for 3 years or 5 to 8 years, obviously you are going to have to do more work on the older car no matter the brand.

In more recent times, I've seen a lot more problems with newish Japanese cars during trade-in. Check out theAccord V6/ Acura CL tranny and such.

Having seen many trade-ins, I would say that most European car drivers tend to look after the car a little better than the Japanese car buyer. Probobly a prestige thing. Also, the 80K miles Japanese car is usually a very tired feeling device - everything works, but it isn't going to feel tight and good. I've seen a number of old A6s ( least loved ) that still have tight steering, window switches still click with authority and don't wobble in sockets, the seats still have shape, etc. NMAudi said it best in a post about a page back when somebody asked about German vs Japanese reliability. Depends on what you value in an ownership experience - new often or new feeling for a longer time.

Much of the hype is marketing these days.

MatthewZ

My 2000 Accord was a piece of crap that I traded in for my A4

Flask

and it is definately more finely finished than any Japanese car I've owned. Performance comparisons do not even need to be discussed -- there are none.

phred

There's design quality, and build quality.

Germans (traditionally) are supposed to have excellent designs (remember when Mercedes said Engineered like no other car in the world), but the Japanese (traditionally) screw them together better on the assembly line.

Ideally, one company would do BOTH things, then we could all just buy those cars and live happily ever after.

ex-quattro PETE

LOL! That's exactly what I did 6 months ago. not a piece of crap, but very booooring.

lazybeans

i tend to think japanese put more effort into making their cars more reliable.. but germans put more effort on the tangible things like performance, handling, and fit/finish. They spend more time designing and engineering a car to be a driving machine.. japanese spend more time designing a car to be a reliable machine... different cultures, different priorities..

4 head

Speaking very generally, the Japanese primarily build "transportation appliances". Reliable but boring cars. Think of them as rolling refridgerators, with a like amount of personality.

A4BlueJean

I'll be very happy. Only time will tell and I think that people with the opinion that German cars are built to last longer than Jap cars is some what unfounded. Polls show many repeat buyers with both origins. The thing that concerns me the most about buying my first Audi is reliability. The worst thing to have is a car in the shop. If German cars perform well then there's no problem but if they don't finish the day to day race I guess we can call Audi Roadside ***.

Reggie3

Porsche hired Toyota to redo all their manufacturing to install real quality control.