Cars We Drive!

IMO there's nothing wrong with VW cars it's just if you get a VW you will routinely have to expose yourself to people that drive Bugs when you get service. Also the higher priced VWs are equal to full on luxury brands but you do not get the luxury treatment, i.e. free loaners, premium service wait areas, no association with Bug owners, etc.

Fair. I'd never buy a bug (Conne might, though), and for the price of the luxury versions, I'd definitely be looking at the other German manufacturers. But I'd definitely consider something like the Golf TDI for an everyday driver.

If that Phaeton isn't like the over-engineered, holy-****-that's-a-VW halo car the original was, then it's utterly pointless. The second iteration of the Touareg was a step down from the first and I hope this doesn't follow suit. Even if it turns out to be $100k

You guys are completely missing the point of vw's, they are fairly well made premium cars and they are very popular here in Europe, if you want luxury you buy an Audi.

Large vw's are made to be family and company cars, the later often means they can't be too showy or to cheap lloking and they have a price cap, which leads us to vw's, the people's car.

The V12 Phaeton that came to the states in 2004 was a well-built vehicle that was fun to drive. Came close to buying one, but the concerns Piob raised, long with a few of my own discouraged me.



Find Finn said:

You guys are completely missing the point of vw's, they are fairly well made premium cars and they are very popular here in Europe, if you want luxury you buy an Audi.

Large vw's are made to be family and company cars, the later often means they can't be too showy or to cheap lloking and they have a price cap, which leads us to vw's, the people's car.

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Who wants to willingly spend time with "the people?" Sure as hell not me.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!



Piobaire said:

Who wants to willingly spend time with "the people?" Sure as hell not me.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

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Ze germans, as long as I don't have to look at them in swimsuits, I don't mind.

The Phaeton was the best car I have ever owned. One of the car magazines used to sum it up, "If you exploded a small nuclear device inside a Phaeton the small nuclear device would probably come off worse".

It was solid as a rock and visiting the factory at Dresden (which also made Bentley Continental FSs for a short time) to see the car being made was quite an experience much more than picking up a Mercedes from Stuttgart (which they will no longer allow in the UK).

Reliability Statistics from Warranty Direct in the UK http://www.reliabilityindex.com/

Worst 10
1 AUDI RS6 999.99
2 BMW M5 703.00
3 Mercedes-Benz V-Class 571.00
4 Porsche 911 996 527.00
5 Mercedes-Benz CL 524.00
6 Mercedes-Benz SL 514.00
7 Bentley Continental GT 496.00
8 Audi Q7 475.00
9 Audi A6 Allroad 469.00
10 Mercedes-Benz R-Class 438.00

Best 10
1 Honda Jazz 1.00
2 Vauxhall Agila 7.00
3 Mitsubishi Lancer 7.00
4 Citroen C1 12.00
5 Toyota Yaris 14.00
6 Mazda MX-5 15.00
7 Suzuki Alto 16.00
8 Honda HR-V 18.00
9 CITROEN SAXO 18.00
10 Ford Fiesta 20.00

I'm sceptical about that ranking.

It is put together by a firm who pays out on repairs. As such any "expensive" repair will kick them in the balls, and as such they will rate it as poor.

They also take into account "Time off road" which is decidedly longer in a complex luxury car than a small city car. If you are charging £10k for a repair, have handed out a 3 Series/C Class/A4 loaner, and are ordering your parts from Germany then you will take your sweet time getting it right. If you're putting new spark plugs in a Honda Jazz with te customer in a waiting room then you get a shift on.

So the more options a car has, the more it is likely to break down? Who knew....

How often it needs repairing, and how much it will cost you to put right. A car could break down five times, but only cost you £50 each time to fix, or it could break down once and set you back £1,000. That's why the Reliability Index figure combines several elements - cost, inconvenience and rate of failure - making it a 'real world' picture of car ownership.

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Bad metrics, IMO. Inconvenience? When my car needs service I show up at 7am, sign a few papers, and am on my way in a complimentary loaner that is either a C class or GLK. When I had a Nissan Titan they had it all day for something minor, no loaner, and when I went to pick it up they told me the mechanic had been "working on the wrong truck all day" and mine would be staying overnight. The service writer made a big deal of dropping me off at a nearby rental company for a complimentary loaner, a tiny 3 cylinder car, and it took me 90 minutes of waiting in a ****** rental car lobby.

Just one example.



Piobaire said:

Bad metrics, IMO. Inconvenience? When my car needs service I show up at 7am, sign a few papers, and am on my way in a complimentary loaner that is either a C class or GLK.

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You actually have to go to the dealer? Sux . . .



TC (Houston) said:

You actually have to go to the dealer? Sux . . .

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It's three blocks from work and I'm a good guy as opposed to their special flower high maintenance clients.



JayJay said:

The V12 Phaeton that came to the states in 2004 was a well-built vehicle that was fun to drive. Came close to buying one, but the concerns Piob raised, long with a few of my own discouraged me.

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You can get a used one cheap, wonder how much I would spend annually on upkeep..................



Don't know anything about that reliabilty index but I've gone AUDI the last few years and I am never going back to any other brand.