German automobiles are trendy, influential, and admirable. But, when the question of reliability comes up, most of its owners tend to tell a different story. Think of flagship cars like BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, and even Volkswagen, making Germany crack the top list on vehicle export value.
Still, German car brands are often considered unreliable. Does it baffle you too? It is pretty tricky to generalize opinions on the country’s entire vehicle output. Still, we can approach the issue because the German engineering style, even beyond automotive creations, is of a particular type.
Why Are German Cars So Unreliable?
In short, German Cars are known for luxury and incredible driving performance, that’s where the German Automakers put more emphasis. they are primarily designed to deliver ultimate performance while the concern of how reliable it is for users, in the long run, comes second.
The truth is that those who know what they want will never go wrong by choosing to buy a german car. If you’re going to question the durability of german automotive, there are a lot of BMW lovers wooed by high millage that are ready to challenge your approach to car maintenance.
However, with our experience in handling most German automobiles over the years, there is certainly an explanation as to why most german automobiles are seen as unreliable, compared to cars made from other countries.
What Determines a Car’s Reliability?
There is no particular yardstick to measure how a car is reliable, but the first step is not to believe in marketing alone. It is worth noting that german cars like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes have somehow been able to intertwine luxury and reliability wrongly.
Luxury brands are not always the ones leading the reliability charts. The reliability of a car is determined by the frequency of required repairs and how cost-effective it is.
Factors like milage and types of problems experienced by the vehicle owners also clearly point to the reliability level of the car. Generally speaking, a car that does not often require beyond typical repairs such as oil changes, tires, and brake works which are not expensive to fix in the long run, is considered reliable..
Are German Cars Less Reliable?
All cars usually have their fair share of drawbacks in areas of cost, performance, and reliability. But having studied most german car creations, there is just this obsession of having a brilliant mechanical composition of the engine and car parts which translates to unnecessary complexity.
Due to this, you will spend more to maintain german cars given that most of its spare parts are specialized and uniquely designed, which, sometimes, need to be imported or cost more to buy.
In all sense of reality, this is not seen as reliability for a vehicle. Several industry surveys have thrown German cars down to the group of least reliable cars – based on the experiences of thousands of car owners, particularly in the United States.
I’d say German cars used to be one of the most reliable engines; take the Mercedes OM 616, for example. But these times, people are more focused on engines specialized in fuel economy and expect cars to keep running beyond 200,000 miles.
What makes German cars unreliable?
For one thing, the consistent complication of features in most German cars to justify their prices has caused a significant strain on its reliability.
They don’t adopt the basics of car manufacturing like the Japanese, and that is why fixing anything that gets spoilt in most German cars can require days and more money instead of a few hours and less cost.
However, German car buyers, like the Porche and Mercedes, have their specific demographics – most likely those who have fun with their vehicles without too many concerns on warranty or need for it to be a workhorse like many people use Japanese cars.
German Cars vs other Cars Reliability
A few years ago, Warranty Direct’s Reliability Index revealed in a research report that German models, including BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes, were among the least reliable cars in Europe.
According to the survey, this was in contrast to Japanese cars, which were considered most dependable. Going by several automotive reports available in the public domain, most german cars make fall below the average industry standard when the focus is narrowed down to dependability compared to other vehicle makes.
Are There Reliable German Cars?
German cars are indeed among the least reliable car brands. However, examples of the most respected cars in the world today include Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and even Porsche of which are all german cars. Most german automotive creations in recent years have changed the narratives of being unreliable.
When selecting the most reliable german vehicles, we could quickly point at vehicles with leading-edge integrated technology like the 2020 BMW 5 Series, 2020 Audi A7, the Porsche 911 iconic sports car, Audi A5 coupe, Mercedes-Benz C-Class compact sedan, and perhaps the 2020 BMW 4 Series.
Conclusion on why are german cars so unreliable
Whether reliable or not, German cars are known for their leading-edge engineering, including a carefully planned maintenance scheme that users are expected to follow to enjoy the car’s longevity.
However, it all comes down to the lack of maintenance by the german car users who claim it is unreliable. On a cohesive judgment, German cars are expensive to maintain (you now know why),
Japanese cars might not require maintenance as they are built to be trouble-free, while American cars are cheap to maintain And, yes, you are right about what many people think – why should someone be willing to spend more to take care of a German car when they already paid a premium price to buy the vehicle?
Robert Anderson is a world class motorhead who rebuilt his first carb at age 10, his first engine at age 15, and completed his first full hotrod build when he was just 18! Previously, he has ran a part warehouse, delivered pizzas, and managed the service department for a $20 million/year revenue dealership. Robert knows cars like few others and he is passionate about sharing his knowledge.