As a new VW owner I have to say this forum seems to have a lot of people wanting to jump ship. There's a ton of great info and I've enjoyed reading up on Grambles posts but there's an overall 'negative vibe' towards the car on this forum. At least that's what I've taken from it. It's jaded my GTI experience ever so slightly .... I've been enjoying it overall but I'm a little more paranoid now regarding reliability.
I can understand the situation and heck, why wouldn't you drive a vehicle from your employer. Best of luck.
VW reliability is like russian roulette of transport. You either get a reliable tank up to 200k without a SINGLE problem, or you get one that can be reliable with only hopes and dreams. my mk6 so far was fine for most part, i got water pump took shit at 9,000 miles (which is unacceptable on most brands on new car) and subframe clunking that prevents holding front end alignment (that was solved with tyrolsport subframe collar bushings) bc the stock bolts aren't snug together. Clutch slipped but that was due to apr stage 1 tune, gti's clutches are a joke unlike the focus st, wrx, srt4's and even mazdaspeed3's, bc the stock clutch is only capable of stock levels, (i.e. cost cutting), generally vw in us did a lot of cost cutting by adding some plastic parts which is the cause, to lower msrp so americans can buy em. I can kinda understand why, to try to make money, but it doesn't seem to work as much.
Because europe has tons of other shit like Italian, French and Polish (skoda) cars. Which are unreliable pieces of shit for the most part. With that sample size I am not surprised VW stands out...
Americans drive a lot more than europeans as well. Public transportation is nearly non existent here and we have the highest car ownership/per capita rate in the world.
Japanese cars have always been the most reliable no matter how you slice and dice it. The are used by the terrorists in the middle east and most of the world uses Corollas as taxi cabs. And they run just fine on donkey piss gas and an occasional oil change with shitty oil. Whether it is europe or here or a durka cave in Durkistan.
American cars really narrowed the reliability gap and are now close to the japanese. But European cars have been less reliable than the American cars since the death of the beatle.
i am aware of what you said as being a euro (well turkey) native and lived there till 11 years old when i moved to US and visit there at least once a year, i can see why. Those french, german, skoda's, seat's and so on are a hit or miss, just like vw, they're either reliable as fuck or is made to be for a museum. But alfa's and fiat's are the worst out of them, you won't see much older alfa's on the road compared to other euro brands, at least in Balkan countries. There's also lot of Lada's (russian cars) where I'm from, now those are real shitty cars, i saw one 2000 lada that the trunk randomly flew open on the highway, something a VW didn't do.
Also i rented a peugeot in greece with 60k miles, no check engine light, steering tracks straight, clutch's good (better feedback than gti actually), engine good (although slow), but it appears people banged in back seats since the back seat bottom couldn't hold in place, one of the interior door closing bars with window switch attached got really loose and some white substances dried up on the seat. my uncles 2004 megane diesel daily driver which i believe has 70k miles now, because his commute is right across the city, never really had issues other than the peeling on door pull bars, but he bought the car used a few years back when it only had about 55k k's. But it needs a new clutch now since it started slipping when i drove it last summer while engaging the revs shoot a little high. Also euro cars are quite more cheaper than japanese/korean cars to purchase, due to importing and so on.
But not everywhere uses corolla's as cabs, in turkey no one uses asian cars as cabs but hyundai's, rest are fiat's (specially made for turkey), dacia and so on, i saw on odo on fiats specially which end up 700,000 km/h's on odo, meaning 400k miles
with no check engine lights and they go up 60% inclines in no problem and half the drivers treat em like shit and sometimes grind gears but its not their car and company is the liability when something goes wrong, so no fucks given :laugh:.
Germany, just merc's, and vw tourans.
Italy, Prius, fiats.
Mexico, old sentra's, mk4 jettas with somewhat face lifted head/tail lights that are still in production, which is called jetta classico.
France, mostly those vw caddy vans (like the ford transit connect ones)
Greece, passat or skoda's
same story in bulgaria.
although, costa rica had lot of corollas and accents as cabs, iirc, lebanon, dubai as well, but went there over 10 years ago.
American cars will never surpass Japanese cars
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this, although american cars are nearly as reliable as japanese, just doesn't have better resale value. it's kinda depends on model, kinda like VW's, hit or miss, just minus the shitty service department, although my local ford dealer has shitty service when my dad takes his expedition in.
