Euro Cars Used to be Very Reliable

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What happened?
Toy creep and the advent of lowest bidder Chinese parts.
Nothing better than an old Benz or BMW. Have an old BMW and have had four old Mercedes. Great and mostly trouble free cars all.
Generally as reliable as hammers and about as easy to diagnose and fix.
Also owned an '81 Vanagon. Aside from the cracked heads after 100K or so that were a signature feature of the VW Type IV, that thing was also as reliable as any axe.
Italian and French cars always were always pretty dodgy, though.
Brit cars were usually mechanically robust but had endemic electrical, ignition and hydraulic problems, but these were usually easy and cheap to fix. Daily drove an MGB for many miles with no regrets back in the day.
As technically neat as they were, only a masochist would own a Citroen.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

Italian and French cars always were always pretty dodgy, though.


Hahaha! You beat me to it!
 
England is damp and dark. Lucas and Maretti, the Italian version. Gotta be the most mickey mouse ignition and electrics ever made. You would think they would make cars easier to start in damp weather. US cars are cheapest heeps going but they mostly ran. Bugs built VW into the colossus it is today. Volvos and SAABs If you were in W Germany or Sweden, you had Bosch and Beru , good stuff in the day. Good as Delco or Autolite. It is a shame because I really like English and Italian styling. Jaguars, even some of the newer models are sexy. Old Alfas are nice. Ferraris Have good lines but are flawed by imperfect rendering and they don't age well.
 
When were European cars known for reliability?

Mercedes, yes. They were tanks that didn't need much attention, however when they did they weren't cheap!

The Scandinavians made some fine automobiles. Still do. Not without their quirks, though.

As far as I can tell, the "old European cars were more reliable" meme comes from a combination of looking towards the past with rose colored glasses and knowing now, 30 years later, how to permanently fix common problems.

When you said European, what did you mean? Because I don't think anything British, French, Italian, or from the CCCP has ever been considered reliable.
 
the only reliable European car I can think of is the Volvo 240
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In the 1980's, a Mercedes diesel sedan was something to cherish and pass down to your kids. Today, it is a lease only deal if at all.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Euro cars are ALL ABOUT performance and luxury.......not reliability.

In the 1990s, BMW produced a lot of very basic models as daily beaters. Take the 316i, 320i, 518i and 520i as examples. All with small 4cyl or 6cyl power-plants that have certainly stood the test of time.
I feel the 90s was the pinnacle of BMW. Nowadays they're just Black Plastic [censored]® like everything else. Those older ones are relatively easy to repair, spares are plentiful and they'll certainly go the distance, in relative comfort too.

If you want to call my 1993 "unreliable," you better have a good excuse as to why a heater hose that lasted 24yrs before painting the roads green is unreliable
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Now, there are some spectacular examples of unreliability in the European world. Some of the cheapest Mercedes in the 90s and 2000s were made in Mexico or East Europe, and were nasty little pieces of junk. There were others, too, but I haven't heard of them.

Australia's contribution to the "performance and luxury ..... not reliability" category was probably the Leyland P76. Actually, scratch the performance. Some bonehead from Leyland ruined the aerodynamics of the car.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
As far as I can tell, the "old European cars were more reliable" meme comes from a combination of looking towards the past with rose colored glasses and knowing now, 30 years later, how to permanently fix common problems.


I agree that there is a bit of rose colored glasses going on.

They are not like a modern Corolla where you can just put in gas, change the oil, and chinese rotors once in a while.
 
I've only owned two cars of a European make-- a 2001 VW Jetta GLX and a 2000 Land Rover Discovery II. I wish I had both back, even though they required frequent repairs. The former, I had too many people jump in at night and ask if it were a BMW (the fit and finish was that good) for that too be a fluke. And it just drove [censored] good. The Discovery? Best 4wd off-road vehicle I've had hands down. Sure, if you didn't see oil on the driveway, that meant there was none in it, but that was part of the fun. Had to take wrench to it every couple of months, but honestly these were FUN cars to drive. I miss that in today's cookie-cutter vehicles.
 
When I was a teenager, there was a British specialty repair shop that had a very large sign on the back wall which stated 'The brits drink warm beer because lucas makes refrigerators'
 
Originally Posted By: Speak2Mountain
What happened?
Much rather buy an American, Japanese, or Korean vehicle


I did chuckle when I gave someone a ride once in my Mercedes and he thought they were expensive because they were reliable. They're expensive due to all the options it has, some of the things they do make it less reliable like using liquid filled motor mounts. Seems to make them fail earlier than just regular solid rubber ones.
 
Here are two components to reliability: how often in breaks and how much it costs to repair. Every Euro car I have every owned had been bad to terrible for frequency of breakdowns, and insanely expensive to repair and maintain. Parts cost 3x more than American or Japanese cars. Now we just stick with Ford, Honda, or Toyota (and Subaru for AWD vehicles).
 
They still are. But, unlike mainstream Asian marks that have no soul you do have to maintain them. Do that and they will at last the best of the rest from my experience anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Euro cars are ALL ABOUT performance and luxury.......not reliability.


I'm sure all of the Volvo 240 owners would agree.

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