3 ms·

I had a 1981 Tercel that "only" got about 160,000 miles before I traded it in. It still ran fine. Now I have an Infiniti and that's also rock-solid. Conversely

I had a 1981 Tercel that "only" got about 160,000 miles before I traded it in. It still ran fine. Now I have an Infiniti and that's also rock-solid. Conversely, I've had three German cars (one VW and two BMWs) and they all sucked. On the last BMW I had to replace all four window regulators, at $900 each. Manufacturing is hard.

dieselgate 4y ago
Depends on the vehicle or engine - VW TDIs are commonly known to be a robust high mileage engine, half a million miles and up aren’t unheard of. If you’re talking about interior and finish components though yes they can suck
- vr46 4y ago
  My 1989 MR2 could take it all, except being rammed off the road. My 2013 A6 is several orders of magnitude nicer to be inside than the 2011 Lexus, with a similarly better ride. Reliability isn’t everything. The 2001 QX4 was close to covering both worlds, though, I know the Japanese manufacturers can get it right :)
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    Yeah definitely agree with you there. I really wish there were more made-for-US Japanese diesels around but that’s purely preference (for biodiesel)- import JP cars are pretty common on the west coast but that’s not my preference. Still sorely miss my ‘92 Nissan hardbody, ‘03 Toyota echo, and ‘80 civic to this day but assume they’re all still being driven. Always thought the mr2 was a super sweet car! Edit: and fwiw I’ve been seeing a diesel Corolla on craigslist around Seattle but they want like 12k for it - maybe that thing should get put in a museum
visiblink 4y ago
Piling on here. My wife had a 2002 Jetta from new until 2019. We replaced both of the front window regulators on multiple occasions. There's nothing like having your window drop into the door when it's -40 C outside. Sometimes, we'd "luck out" and the window had just slipped out of the holder. Just as often, we needed parts that were available only from Volkswagen. In general, the car required somewhere between $1000-$2000 worth of maintenance every year. I've owned ten vehicles over the years and none have come close to the VW in terms of total cost of ownership. She replaced it with a new (non-VW) SUV a few years ago and it hasn't needed anything but oil changes yet.
hollywood_court 4y ago
You’re getting lucky with the Infiniti. Nissan/Infiniti are consistently the most unreliable Japanese autos. And I’m a huge Datsun fan with 3 in my stable. Carlos has managed to turn Nissan/Infiniti into the rental/fleet car of choice for many companies.
- BenjiWiebe 4y ago
  I have a 2009 Nissan Altima with 282k miles on it. Pretty sure it's on borrowed time. I bought it used 4ish years ago with 240k miles on it for $1200.

dieselgate 4y ago

Depends on the vehicle or engine - VW TDIs are commonly known to be a robust high mileage engine, half a million miles and up aren’t unheard of. If you’re talking about interior and finish components though yes they can suck

vr46 4y ago
My 1989 MR2 could take it all, except being rammed off the road. My 2013 A6 is several orders of magnitude nicer to be inside than the 2011 Lexus, with a similarly better ride. Reliability isn’t everything. The 2001 QX4 was close to covering both worlds, though, I know the Japanese manufacturers can get it right :)
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Yeah definitely agree with you there. I really wish there were more made-for-US Japanese diesels around but that’s purely preference (for biodiesel)- import JP cars are pretty common on the west coast but that’s not my preference. Still sorely miss my ‘92 Nissan hardbody, ‘03 Toyota echo, and ‘80 civic to this day but assume they’re all still being driven. Always thought the mr2 was a super sweet car! Edit: and fwiw I’ve been seeing a diesel Corolla on craigslist around Seattle but they want like 12k for it - maybe that thing should get put in a museum

visiblink 4y ago

Piling on here. My wife had a 2002 Jetta from new until 2019. We replaced both of the front window regulators on multiple occasions. There's nothing like having your window drop into the door when it's -40 C outside. Sometimes, we'd "luck out" and the window had just slipped out of the holder. Just as often, we needed parts that were available only from Volkswagen. In general, the car required somewhere between $1000-$2000 worth of maintenance every year. I've owned ten vehicles over the years and none have come close to the VW in terms of total cost of ownership. She replaced it with a new (non-VW) SUV a few years ago and it hasn't needed anything but oil changes yet.

hollywood_court 4y ago

You’re getting lucky with the Infiniti. Nissan/Infiniti are consistently the most unreliable Japanese autos. And I’m a huge Datsun fan with 3 in my stable. Carlos has managed to turn Nissan/Infiniti into the rental/fleet car of choice for many companies.

BenjiWiebe 4y ago
I have a 2009 Nissan Altima with 282k miles on it. Pretty sure it's on borrowed time. I bought it used 4ish years ago with 240k miles on it for $1200.