Why is German engineering held at such high regard,

[Sakuraba is #1]

when Japanese cars are usually significantly more reliable and outlasting all the other cars out there? It’s like comparing a German pretzel to a Japanese sushi roll—both are delicious, but one might just leave you with a knot in your stomach!

I often hear that with cars German engineering can’t be beat, but whenever I look into buying older German BMWs, Audis, etc, I always hear about them having issues and even BMWs from mid 2000s already falling apart, yet Hondas and Toyotas from the 90s are still pretty reliable. It’s like German cars are on a mission to self-destruct, while Japanese cars are just trying to get you to work on time without any drama.

I understand though Japanese family sedans of the 90s cannot compete at all performance wise with German vehicles, but when people talk about engineering, especially with the general population and not within just car guys, shouldn’t reliability be more of the focus? Maybe, but then again, who doesn’t love a good car soap opera?

 

[Bornstarch]

Japan has higher average IQ than Germany and Japanese people are also just more meticulous and Germany's workforce has a high number of non ethnic Germans for cost savings.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Yep, German engineering is very overrated.
BMWs are fun cars and pretty luxurious but they're only worth leasing, never owning.

After 70K miles they can become lemons that are constantly breaking down with parts & labor can cost you far more than you'd want to keep your 'fun & luxurious' car going.

Be smart and get a Lexus/Toyota or Acura/Honda.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

German performs better but is less reliable

 

[Kal-El]

Spawned from ww2 mostly I believe, more to do with tanks and weaponry than cars.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Gercan cars are shitboxes.

 

[Contempt]

when Japanese cars are usually significantly more reliable and outlasting all the other cars out there? It’s like comparing a German pretzel to a Japanese sushi roll—both are delicious, but one might just leave you with a knot in your stomach!

I often hear that with cars German engineering can’t be beat, but whenever I look into buying older German BMWs, Audis, etc, I always hear about them having issues and even BMWs from mid 2000s already falling apart, yet Hondas and Toyotas from the 90s are still pretty reliable. It’s like German cars are on a mission to self-destruct, while Japanese cars are just trying to get you to work on time without any drama.

I understand though Japanese family sedans of the 90s cannot compete at all performance wise with German vehicles, but when people talk about engineering, especially with the general population and not within just car guys, shouldn’t reliability be more of the focus? Maybe, but then again, who doesn’t love a good car soap opera?

When the German car companies are constantly raising the bar for performance, it's a completely different thing than building a Camry to last for many years. Also, think about the way the two types of car are driven... I don't think you'll see too many Corolla's at track days.

If you want performance and rock solid reliability, go with Porsche.

 

[Sakuraba is #1]

I’m talking about daily commuters, those brave souls who navigate the concrete jungle like it’s a video game on hard mode. Performance cars? They’re like the cheat codes of the automotive world—speed and handling are their superpowers, but reliability? That’s just a bonus feature they rarely decide to include.

 

[fingercuffs]

when Japanese cars are usually significantly more reliable and outlasting all the other cars out there? It’s like comparing a German pretzel to a Japanese sushi roll—both are delicious, but one might just leave you with a knot in your stomach!

I often hear that with cars German engineering can’t be beat, but whenever I look into buying older German BMWs, Audis, etc, I always hear about them having issues and even BMWs from mid 2000s already falling apart, yet Hondas and Toyotas from the 90s are still pretty reliable. It’s like German cars are on a mission to self-destruct, while Japanese cars are just trying to get you to work on time without any drama.

I understand though Japanese family sedans of the 90s cannot compete at all performance wise with German vehicles, but when people talk about engineering, especially with the general population and not within just car guys, shouldn’t reliability be more of the focus? Maybe, but then again, who doesn’t love a good car soap opera?

I'd love to see the stats on this.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Japan has higher average IQ than Germany and Japanese people are also just more meticulous and Germany's workforce has a high number of non ethnic Germans for cost savings.

I believe the key word here is....was. a long, long time ago.

 

[SSgt Dickweed]

 

[jimbob27]

Spawned from ww2 mostly I believe, more to do with tanks and weaponry than cars.

It predates that. Their ww2 manufacturing was very much influenced by the fact they'd not really embraced industrial style assembly line manufacturing. They were still a nation of cottage industry specialists when it came to maufacturing. Their workers were much closer to skilled swiss watchmakers, than American or British assembly line workers.

Armchair historians like to speculate that Germany might have done better if they'd utilised less tank designs - usually suggesting they stop with PzIVs or Panthers, but none of their factories would have been able to easily switch, because each companies designers only created designed that their particular work-force and factories could produce. If you wanted to teach Henschel workers to build Krupp tanks, you would have had to shut down one factory entierly, and have the other working at reduced output for many months whilst they train the new workers.

I can't really comment on the car industry, but top end German components are still among the best in the world. There's no real magic, just they still have the attitude as the swiss watch maker and stick to extremely tight tolerance levels.

 

[IIIIIIII]

i don't know if it's german engineering more than it is the fact that more moving parts means greater chances for things to break down. i think it's just simple logic with so many moving pieces at such fast speeds. a honda civic's components running next to it would look like the model-t in comparison.

 

[William Huggins]

It predates that. Their ww2 manufacturing was very much influenced by the fact they'd not really embraced industrial style assembly line manufacturing. They were still a nation of cottage industry specialists when it came to maufacturing. Their workers were much closer to skilled swiss watchmakers, than American or British assembly line workers.

Armchair historians like to speculate that Germany might have done better if they'd utilised less tank designs - usually suggesting they stop with PzIVs or Panthers, but none of their factories would have been able to easily switch, because each companies designers only created designed that their particular work-force and factories could produce. If you wanted to teach Henschel workers to build Krupp tanks, you would have had to shut down one factory entierly, and have the other working at reduced output for many months whilst they train the new workers.

I can't really comment on the car industry, but top end German components are still among the best in the world. There's no real magic, just they still have the attitude as the swiss watch maker and stick to extremely tight tolerance levels.

Retooling alone is a mission in itself, tanks are heavy industry the vast majority of the Germany's armoured fighting vehicles were welded construction.

Germany suffered more in the later years of the war with fuel supplies, running more tanks wasn't an option, logistics and fuel shortages really crippled Germany's war effort....... Wunderwaffe weren't really the issue, they simply didn't have the fuel to power the interceptors and tank destroyers they had that they relied on to defend themselves near the end of the war........

 

[Patrick Jane]

Because germans always follow the rules precisely which i guess works out well with high-end engineering and prevents chabuduo garbitch.

Reliability is usually at odds with complexity, and german engineering tends to be complex and therefore error prone over a long term.

 

[Beechwood]

Well, having worked at a German run company, I can remember the Germans saying in the past their country had a good name for engineering. In todays world they were concerned. The Germans felt other countries were making goods as good as those manufactured and designed in Germany.

By far, with out a doubt, the worst car I ever owned was German made. With that said others thought highly of it as it looked good and sporty.

I used to work with some Chinese nationals. They were all quite status symbol conscious. To them the top products came from Germany. If it was made in Germany or German designed the Chinese felt it was the very best. American made on the other hand had a poor name to it. They didn't think much of American made products. they were considered cheap and poorly made. Ironically kind of how many Americans think of Chinese made products.

 

[Brom Bones]

when Japanese cars are usually significantly more reliable and outlasting all the other cars out there? It’s like comparing a German pretzel to a Japanese sushi roll—both are delicious, but one might just leave you with a knot in your stomach!

I often hear that with cars German engineering can’t be beat, but whenever I look into buying older German BMWs, Audis, etc, I always hear about them having issues and even BMWs from mid 2000s already falling apart, yet Hondas and Toyotas from the 90s are still pretty reliable. It’s like German cars are on a mission to self-destruct, while Japanese cars are just trying to get you to work on time without any drama.

I understand though Japanese family sedans of the 90s cannot compete at all performance wise with German vehicles, but when people talk about engineering, especially with the general population and not within just car guys, shouldn’t reliability be more of the focus? Maybe, but then again, who doesn’t love a good car soap opera?

 

[Tatra]

Japan has higher average IQ than Germany and Japanese people are also just more meticulous and Germany's workforce has a high number of non ethnic Germans for cost savings.

So why didn't the car originate in Japan and why did the Japanese have to be taught how to build it by Europeans?

 

[I Am Legion]

It's all marketing. I am in the Warranty business. We use actuaries to figure out how to price warranties in the used segment. A combination of factors including cost of repair avg, parts cost and availability, frequency of repairs needed, repeat repairs needed, mileage on repairs and in between them, and severity of repairs needed. The top of the bad list is ALWAYS German makes. Audi being the worst followed by VW and Porsche. BMW and Mercedes are also in top 10 worst. The only vehicles that give them a run is Nissan with those terrible transmissions.

People always ask me if it was the end of the world and there would be no mechanics what car would I choose to last the longest? Toyota Corolla.

 

[evergreenrider]

Living on past achievements