Euro Cars Used to be Very Reliable

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
German cars aren't designed to be reliable. They are designed to provide a driving experience, whether sporty or for comfort.


How can they provide a "driving experience" of any type, when they spend most of their time on a rack?

 

[billt460]

Here are some sharp looking Land Rovers doing what they do best.

 

[zeng]

Originally Posted By: HoosierJeeper

I think the other thing that taints Euro vehicle's reliability image is I think a higher proportion of them get beat on and run on a budget.

Get beat on, no.
Run on tight budget, no.
That's not valid in Malaysia as majority of LR owners are high income earners (not even high middle income earners could afford one here )....
with repair maintenance costs fully borne by enterprises.

'Maintenance specialists' in Euro cars here are few and far in between, and I do notice some of them are dumbs, with due respect.

 

[volvos_rock]

they are maintenance whores, do the maintenance and they will run forever. We are on our 3rd Volvo, 09 S80 at 99k. replaced an 02 V70XC, with 120k and a 96 850 with 280k. no real repairs on any of them. The trans on the S80 was replaced at 46K due to the torque converter failing. just purchased a 16 MB Metris.

for 6 of the years we owned the 02 XC, we also had the 98 K1500. All operating costs figured, the K1500 cost about $1000 more to own over those years, not including fuel.

Maintenance is the key.

 

[Speak2Mountain]

This////exactly

 

[Speak2Mountain]

how can good maintenance fix: a compressor that goes out at 46K or your dashboard that blinks out at 55K

 

[jeepman3071]

A new neighbor moved in down the street a few weeks ago and has a BMW E60 528xi with over 200k miles on it. I asked him if he had any issues with it, and he said nothing major, just a valve cover leak and a battery. He said he only bought high mileage (greater than 120k) BMWs. I said "isn't that when stuff starts to break?"

He said by that mileage, most problems have been fixed if the car was maintained, and you have less of a chance of getting a factory lemon, since lemons spend more time in the shop and getting tossed around between owners than actually driven. He said he had more problems buying newer cars with 30k miles and keeping them to 100k than he did buying well maintained cars with 100k+ and driving them to 200k. His wife drove a 2008 Tahoe they bought from down south with 100k miles on it. Body was in mint condition.

Interesting.

 

[Stag]

I have to weigh in here. As my sig reflects, I have some experience with the Audi and Volvo marques. The Volvo S60 has intermittent ABS light issues, intermittent fuel gauge nonfunction, rapid bulb burnouts, climate control module failure, damper door failure/breakage, very rough idle after a subframe bending going over a curb. The 240 has a half million miles and has some plastic parts that are brittle from age and break easily. The B-5 Audi a4 ( the first one we had crashed) has needed little but the usual brakes, tires, timing belt, suspension arms (ball joints). The D-2 A8 has needed more, and has a notoriously weak link- the ZF 5hp21 transmission. These usually fail early.Parts for this car are difficult to find- not many were produced. With all the Euro cars, better to be able to do much of the work yourself; otherwise too costly.

 

[camrydriver111]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
A new neighbor moved in down the street a few weeks ago and has a BMW E60 528xi with over 200k miles on it. I asked him if he had any issues with it, and he said nothing major, just a valve cover leak and a battery. He said he only bought high mileage (greater than 120k) BMWs. I said "isn't that when stuff starts to break?"

He said by that mileage, most problems have been fixed if the car was maintained, and you have less of a chance of getting a factory lemon, since lemons spend more time in the shop and getting tossed around between owners than actually driven. He said he had more problems buying newer cars with 30k miles and keeping them to 100k than he did buying well maintained cars with 100k+ and driving them to 200k. His wife drove a 2008 Tahoe they bought from down south with 100k miles on it. Body was in mint condition.

Interesting.


He must be really good at picking the well maintained cars. I bought my BMW around 100k and as far as I could see it only had one brake job done, oil changes, and one belt replacement. If you don't do your research, you can also get a car where nothing was done for 100k and get screwed big time.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: camrydriver111
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
A new neighbor moved in down the street a few weeks ago and has a BMW E60 528xi with over 200k miles on it. I asked him if he had any issues with it, and he said nothing major, just a valve cover leak and a battery. He said he only bought high mileage (greater than 120k) BMWs. I said "isn't that when stuff starts to break?"

He said by that mileage, most problems have been fixed if the car was maintained, and you have less of a chance of getting a factory lemon, since lemons spend more time in the shop and getting tossed around between owners than actually driven. He said he had more problems buying newer cars with 30k miles and keeping them to 100k than he did buying well maintained cars with 100k+ and driving them to 200k. His wife drove a 2008 Tahoe they bought from down south with 100k miles on it. Body was in mint condition.

Interesting.


He must be really good at picking the well maintained cars. I bought my BMW around 100k and as far as I could see it only had one brake job done, oil changes, and one belt replacement. If you don't do your research, you can also get a car where nothing was done for 100k and get screwed big time.



Yeah that is pretty much what he said. Carfax and dealer records help for maintenance. I know on most BMWs if they were serviced at the dealer you can request the service history. He said that if the owner/dealer with the car won't produce the service records, it isn't a car you want to buy.