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First thought, on the rare occasions we have car shopped, VW was removed from the list (along with e.g. Jeep) because of what appeared to be continually poor Q

First thought, on the rare occasions we have car shopped, VW was removed from the list (along with e.g. Jeep) because of what appeared to be continually poor QA and reliability. Led us to give up on the idea of trying to go biodiesel (dodged a bullet there...). But Tesla seems to have a really remarkable problem.

cromka 5y ago
> biodiesel Out of curiosity, what's wrong with that?
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  Gunks up the emissions equipment
- jahewson 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal
foepys 5y ago
I cannot confirm VWs being unreliable. My family drives 4 18+ year old VWs (3 Golf, 1 Passat), all Diesel with 150,000+ km (2 with 300,000+ km) on them. Not a single rusty part, all on their first clutches (one is pulling trailers regularly), and only a single one needs a cup of oil every 1,000 km. Maybe the VW plants in America are different but my family in Germany will buy VW (or Skoda/Seat) again when the cars give up eventually. Just this time no Diesel.
jacquesm 5y ago
Interesting. So, to counter that, I've driven VW for many years in many different models on ridiculous mileage and never had a single issue with them. This was until about 2008 when I switched to Mercedes, those too were pretty reliable until the last one, which was a recent vintage C class. Now I drive an oldie (25 this january).
- VBprogrammer 5y ago
  German cars have a weird reputation as being unreliable in the US. Which seems strange as a European where they generally have a pretty good reputation, maybe not as good as the Japanese brands but not a million miles away. I think the difference is likely just that the average backstreet garage knows all the faults on a 2005 VW Jetta and how to fix them, they have the right diagnostic equipment to plug them in and read the fault codes etc. In the US I suspect they'd be the same with most GM / Ford / Honda cars of the same era but would think twice about touching a VW or Mercedes.
  - bane 5y ago
    If you have to go to the garage for any reason, it's a reliability problem.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Vehicles need maintenance.
      - bane 5y ago
        Precisely, so the less trips you need to take, the more reliable the vehicle is. It's a single axis. It goes from "inoperable and on fire" on the left to "exists only in far flung sci-fi fantasies" and the more trips to the mechanic you take, the further to the left of that axis your car is. This is why vehicles that need oil changes every 15,000 mile (~24,000 km) are more reliable than ones from a few generations ago that were essentially constantly being serviced.
    - VBprogrammer 5y ago
      Sure, but if you take it to the garage and they know what the issue is straight away and have it fixed 2 hours later it is not nearly as big of a problem if it takes 2 days to figure out the issue and 2 weeks to order in the parts right? The first is a minor inconvenience, the second is likely to leave a lasting impression of "this car is unreliable".

cromka 5y ago

> biodiesel Out of curiosity, what's wrong with that?

selimthegrim 5y ago
Gunks up the emissions equipment
jahewson 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

foepys 5y ago

I cannot confirm VWs being unreliable. My family drives 4 18+ year old VWs (3 Golf, 1 Passat), all Diesel with 150,000+ km (2 with 300,000+ km) on them. Not a single rusty part, all on their first clutches (one is pulling trailers regularly), and only a single one needs a cup of oil every 1,000 km. Maybe the VW plants in America are different but my family in Germany will buy VW (or Skoda/Seat) again when the cars give up eventually. Just this time no Diesel.

jacquesm 5y ago

Interesting. So, to counter that, I've driven VW for many years in many different models on ridiculous mileage and never had a single issue with them. This was until about 2008 when I switched to Mercedes, those too were pretty reliable until the last one, which was a recent vintage C class. Now I drive an oldie (25 this january).

VBprogrammer 5y ago
German cars have a weird reputation as being unreliable in the US. Which seems strange as a European where they generally have a pretty good reputation, maybe not as good as the Japanese brands but not a million miles away. I think the difference is likely just that the average backstreet garage knows all the faults on a 2005 VW Jetta and how to fix them, they have the right diagnostic equipment to plug them in and read the fault codes etc. In the US I suspect they'd be the same with most GM / Ford / Honda cars of the same era but would think twice about touching a VW or Mercedes.
- bane 5y ago
  If you have to go to the garage for any reason, it's a reliability problem.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Vehicles need maintenance.
    - bane 5y ago
      Precisely, so the less trips you need to take, the more reliable the vehicle is. It's a single axis. It goes from "inoperable and on fire" on the left to "exists only in far flung sci-fi fantasies" and the more trips to the mechanic you take, the further to the left of that axis your car is. This is why vehicles that need oil changes every 15,000 mile (~24,000 km) are more reliable than ones from a few generations ago that were essentially constantly being serviced.
  - VBprogrammer 5y ago
    Sure, but if you take it to the garage and they know what the issue is straight away and have it fixed 2 hours later it is not nearly as big of a problem if it takes 2 days to figure out the issue and 2 weeks to order in the parts right? The first is a minor inconvenience, the second is likely to leave a lasting impression of "this car is unreliable".