Racers rejoice! Test Drive Unlimited is coming!

[Righ]

Anybody else surprised to see Lincoln and Buick in that dependability list? Cadillac, I can sort of see. They seem to be the last remnant of America's golden age.

Not especially. If anything I'd say that post lemon laws, the US is making better cars than it ever has. Styling notwithstanding, the US is making some extremely good cars today, even making sports cars that can compete in world class sports car racing.

[edlavallee]

Anybody else surprised to see Lincoln and Buick in that dependability list? Cadillac, I can sort of see. They seem to be the last remnant of America's golden age.

The only ones surprised about that little tidbit are the vast millions who subscribe to old information and consider it still a fair representation of the truth. Fact is, GM has made considerable strides in Quality and often scores quite high in the individual segments. GM also typically leads in the Harbour Report on manufacturing productivity and routinely wins awards from Ward's for their powertrains.

For those of us in the auto industry, this comes as no surprise. But, for the general population (who buy the cars and trucks), this is still one of the best kept secrets.

[Numtini]

Anybody else surprised to see Lincoln and Buick in that dependability list? Cadillac, I can sort of see. They seem to be the last remnant of America's golden age.

The survey is based on cars that are three years old. Living amongst many of the pre-dead owners of those three brands, I would hazard to guess the average three year old of those brands has maybe 10,000 miles on it and has been never seen hard driving, either "hot rodding" or stop and go commuting. Probably all pretty well maintained too. Old people, at least the ones who are buying new cars, have oodles of money and lots and lots of time to bring the car in for maintenance.

[edlavallee]

At least in the USA...

Median Age:
Lincoln - 62.8
Buick - 60.8
Cadillac - 53.4
BMW - 46.1
Audi - not listed

Article Here

[Strazos]

I saw on Top Gear once that one of the top-end Audi A8 diesels can make the round trip between London and Edinburgh on a single tank. That was pretty neat.

[Simond]

The reliability of German engineering is vastly overrated by the buying public.

Want a reliable car?
Buy a Toyota or a Honda.

[Signe]

It's sort of a shame that they show Top Gear in the US now.  Jeremy Clarkson should have stayed England's dirty little secret.

[Righ]

I saw on Top Gear once that one of the top-end Audi A8 diesels can make the round trip between London and Edinburgh on a single tank. That was pretty neat.

Those Brits make it sound like a long way, because Britain is pretty small. That's about the distance from Philadelphia to Boston and back. Still decent though.

[Strazos]

Google says that about 900 miles, round trip.

Decent? That's downright rediculous. I reckon I would have to fuel up at least 3 times to complete the same trip.

[Righ]

It should be just under 800 miles by road, an A8 has 1.5 times the tank capacity as your 'stang, your car has atrocious fuel performance, and those guys turned off everything imaginable and drove at 55 MPH on a 70 MPH motorway with everybody flashing past them at 80 MPH and over. Decent. You can do better with cheaper Volkswagen diesels.

Edit: as these folks prove.

[edlavallee]

The reliability of German engineering is vastly overrated by the buying public.

Want a reliable car?
Buy a Toyota or a Honda.

I think Simond just shot me in my star spangled banner.

[Engels]

I think there are too many factors determining what makes a car 'reliable'. As stated earlier, I had a very smooth ride for 12 years with a 24 year old Porsche. Sure, there were occasional troubles, but nothing suggesting that the car was in any way unreliable. Can the same thing be said for all Porsches? Not at all. Just ask a mid-80 Porsche 928 owner, if there even is such an animal anymore.

My experience with an 1982 Toyota Camry was a Calvary of repairs. Then again, my Cousin drove a clunker of a toyota for decades (yes, plural) with a gerzillion miles on it, across the country in hostile weather and it kept on chugging along.

The difference is levels of expectation; on a Honda, you sort of expect the thing go go pear-shaped after 90k miles or 8 years. With a German car, expectations are high simply because one actually sees a lot of these older German cars on the road still.

In any case, I took in my BMW to the shop today for a 'check up', I will keep those interested appraised of the German supremacy situation in automotive matters as pertains to my wee corner of the universe.

PS: Numtini, get yer behind to Seattle already so I can give you a ride. Lesley is soooo unimpressed with vehicles.

[Righ]

The difference is levels of expectation; on a Honda, you sort of expect the thing go go pear-shaped after 90k miles or 8 years. With a German car, expectations are high simply because one actually sees a lot of these older German cars on the road still.

Probably because German cars are owned by affluent buggers who can afford to take then to the shop for regular checkups or repairs, so a few more survive than do cheap econoboxes. After all, look at all the nice shaped cars that survived compared to the crappy looking ones. There's no way a Fiat X1/9 is more reliable than a Fiat 124, but you wouldn't want to keep the latter any longer than you had to. Hell, old Aston Martin's break down every 500 miles, yet they're nearly all still around. :)

[Engels]

The difference is levels of expectation; on a Honda, you sort of expect the thing go go pear-shaped after 90k miles or 8 years. With a German car, expectations are high simply because one actually sees a lot of these older German cars on the road still.

Probably because German cars are owned by affluent buggers who can afford to take then to the shop for regular checkups or repairs, so a few more survive than do cheap econoboxes. After all, look at all the nice shaped cars that survived compared to the crappy looking ones. There's no way a Fiat X1/9 is more reliable than a Fiat 124, but you wouldn't want to keep the latter any longer than you had to. Hell, old Aston Martin's break down every 500 miles, yet they're nearly all still around. :)

There's truth in what you say, regarding the relative pocketbooks of the people involved. That said, there's a satisfying and reassuring >kerchunk< when I close my german cars' door. There's a wobbly >kershiver< when someone closes the door on a Toyota.

[Righ]

And the swishing of paper in the wind as you close the door of a Trabant. It as much to do with the value of the vehicle - it makes sense to spend some cash on a car that has value due to its initial price, its pedigree or because its uncommon. I wouldn't spend much money on keeping a 1970s Corolla alive:



Whereas:

[Falconeer]

Fileplanet has the beta thing up for subscribers, usually meaning that an open one is coming in about 10 days.
We are talking of the Windows version. And hey, it looks awesome (if you use a steering wheel, of course). Racers Rejoice!