this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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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.
https://www.autoparts24.dk/press/stor-undersoegelse-her-er-bilmaerkerne-med-flest-fejl/
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 the 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.
In the study Tesla 3 is also the worst after 2-3 years, with 14.7% of the cars having a security problem!
So being cheapest is absolutely not a sign of being reliable!
There are many ways to make the stats, but the above study is in my opinion much more reliable than what you showed that is based on price, and AFAIK not based on mandatory safety checks.
Unfortunately we don't have the same amount of data here. So where Hyundai is is unknown, but definitely VW ranks clearly as #1.
As I strongly suspected the study you showed does not give an accurate picture of reliability.
It was just so obvious. The study I show is based on mandatory safety checks, that is equal for all cars.
And in that much more reliable and comparable study VW wins.
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) 😋
Yup. They weren't particularly reliable, but they were cheap and parts were easily available.
Funny, because the Beetle was very reliable and durable here in Europe, both in cold Scandinavian countries, and hot south European countries, and for driving the demanding roads in the alps. And here they were everywhere even more than a decade after production stopped. Very very durable and reliable cars. Also beating way more expensive cars in how old they got on average.
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 today, which still drives absolutely fine! Still with minimal maintenance!
I could understand if you were from Brazil, they had their own VW factory early on, and IDK if quality is the same on those? Maybe USA got VW from Brazil?
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.
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.
Yes, but that doesn't make the car unreliable.
Also funny story is that car safety is abhorrent in USA today compared to Europe. Especially with American pickup trucks.
USA was absolutely in the front on research on for instance seat belts, but Europe made them mandatory to have and wear first, because in USA it was delayed because they were afraid it would slow down car sales! (AFAIK)
Crash tests were expensive, so I bet that started in USA first too, because American car companies had way more money than in Europe.Still how did the Cybertruck pass? We've seen the crash test of that, and it's an absolute killer car for the driver in a crash. A broken neck is almost guaranteed!
There is no way Cyber Truck would pass car safety standards in Europe!
That may all be true. I think companies are now relying on airbags to do a lot of the legwork in crashes nowadays. but the talk was of reliability not safety