A friend in Germany said he trusts VW even more after the scandal, because it showed their engineering cleverness. And also because they cared for their customers and gave them even better performance than the government allowed.

In general, VW has a good, somewhat inflated reputation in Germany + parts of EU. In my experience, the cars are quite solid and reliable, albeit considered a bit boring. But you can also buy a Seat or Skoda which is basically the same car with a different exterior but cheaper...

Maybe the issue is that they are different cars in the US. VW didn't have a Jetta in Germany for years. I owned a Golf MK3 convertible in the US, and I felt it was of lesser quality than similar VWs for the European market.

>> better performance than the government allowed

My understanding was that this performance came at the expense of more pollution, which is what the gov is regulating?

Different pollution, not necessarily more. Tuning the engine for more fuel efficiency generates more nitrogen oxides (above the legal limit in this case) and less carbon dioxide.

That's a fair nitpick, but my reply to the parent comment still stands - that the regulation was about pollution, and not engine performance.

Your flaw is the assumption that all, or even most, customers prefer the non-tangible idea of "reducing pollution" to the tangible experience of greater performance.

>> non-tangible idea of "reducing pollution"

That's exactly the problem with the public's understanding of pollution [1]. If they can't see people dying in front of their eyes, they won't believe it...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/09/fossil-f...

Right, and many customers would prefer the performance, thank you very much.

Yeah, but most of us -- even enthusiasts -- aren't cutting off their cats to do so.

Here in the UKs, VWs are considered reliable and among the easiest to find parts for

A running joke in the Balkans is that you can find parts for older Golfs in the nearest ditch.

In the USA, this is Chevrolet/GMC. VW parts you may have to hunt for/pay more for.

Agreed, also compare the failure statistics with e.g. Ford and you will see VW outperforms for example Ford in reliability. Not sure about other cars.

Same in Sweden and many other places

Going to second and extend TheAdamAndChe's assessment in the US to include the Audi division as well. It seems electrical/electronics are the main quality area.

I had an S5 with dash lighting issues, console control issues, premature clutch failure (to be fair the previous owner could have roasted it), a nearly new SQ5 with a failed cabin blower fan and more console issues. My sister-in-law had a Jetta with aggregate months in the shop for variety of engine management and other electronics issues. My nephew had a CC that broke a seal and the resulting oil leak wasn't detected by the oil pressure sensor and he seized the engine (also had a fuel pump failure). These are the only VWs in the extended family.

Now I have an F150 with way too many electronics in it for a pickup truck...fingers crossed.

Here in Germany VW is also considered pretty reliable and obviously has a huge network of service stations. But I'm pretty sure that's a pretty biased perspective.

Here in Singapore VW has as good reputation as it's always had.

I think the reputation problem is limited to the US.

I'm not sure it remains possible to 'tarnish' a brand when the general public have the attention span of a weasel on crack.

In south Africa, VW is still held in high regard. Especially the Golf GTI. However, most dudes in a relationship have nightmares about it.

Even in Japan, VW is considered as one of the most reliable import car brand. Of course Toyota is different level.

Name a German brand that isn't expensive and difficult to maintain. German car manufacturers have the strongest marketing departments in the world and people will swear blind that their vehicle is reliable and costs nothing to maintain. It's incredibly difficult to get car owners to be honest about how much it really costs them and how reliable their vehicle really is.

Another problem is people don't know any better. It's not like the average person has owned cars from all the major brands for enough time for things to go wrong with them. Most people own only a few cars over their entire life. I think this is particularly true with brands like VW. People just don't know any better and think it's normal for a car to be a money pit.

Cars are a strange thing. Very quickly after getting a car it becomes an essential part of life. When the bill comes through to repair whatever has gone wrong, there's no choice but to pay it. You can't just choose to not pay because it's too expensive. People take their car to the garage where it's essentially held captive until they pay the ransom.

I own a VW myself but I'll never own one (or any other German car) ever again. I will be going back to Japanese cars next time. Honda or Toyota.

I think a lot of people's opinions on cars continue to be based on anecdotal experiences.

I owned 2 VWs in my life, my first, a 1999 Golf was an amazing car. It felt solid and was super reliable right up until I T-boned someone who made an illegal turn and it got written off. I drove an Acura Integra for years after that and had just tonnes of quality issues where it was needing constant maintenance. As soon as I was able to, I bought another VW, a 2003 GTI which I drove with only 1 major repair (AC Compressor) in the 200,000kms I put to it (sold it to a friend at 330,000kms, it still hasn't needed repairs).

I went to a Mazda most recently, but I can't say anything about its reliability since I just bought it in December and only have 5,000kms on it so far.

But my experience, and those among my friends (I was part of a local VW enthusiast club) is that the cars are fine. But the kicker is you need to stay on top of your maintenance. If you skimp on the regular work, you end up paying for it in the end. I had to do various work on the car merely due to its age, but ultimately I loved the VW GTI. It was solid and reliable for me.

"But my experience, and those among my friends (I was part of a local VW enthusiast club) is that the cars are fine. But the kicker is you need to stay on top of your maintenance. If you skimp on the regular work, you end up paying for it in the end. "

This is the absolute truth about most modern cars. The main thing I look for now in a used car is parts availability and how well the car has been maintained.

> Another problem is people don't know any better. It's not like the average person has owned cars from all the major brands for enough time for things to go wrong with them. Most people own only a few cars over their entire life. I think this is particularly true with brands like VW. People just don't know any better and think it's normal for a car to be a money pit.

This is odd coming from a person who is making a sweeping judgment based on owning one car. My family and I have owned mk4, mk5, and mk6 VWs. Never had to bring any of them in for anything other than standard maintenance. I have a newish BMW now and my folks have a lightly used Mercedes. So far everyone's happy there too.

VWs also have a pretty corporate, standard chassis of parts that's reused across almost all of VW's and much of Audi's cars. There should always be cheap parts available from third parties given the number of models interchanging the same parts under the hood. BMWs (and probably Mercedes too) definitely are more expensive to repair and maintain. IMO they tend to over-engineer, and that comes with both good and bad consequences.

you also have to ask "reliable compared to what?". my first car was a golf tdi. the only maintenance cost was the annual service. it never got close to 100k miles though because vw had to buy it back from me in the dieselgate settlement. statistically, I'm sure a toyota corolla is a much more reliable car, and I would have replaced it with one if that's all I cared about. but I've driven a few of those, and golfs are much more pleasant to spend time in, both behind the wheel and in the passenger seat.

there's an inherent tradeoff between performance, reliability, comfort, and price. once people find their preferred set of tradeoffs, they inevitably start making comments on the internet about how they don't understand why everyone doesn't buy their favorite brand.

Which Corolla did you drive as the new ones are pretty performant? I've got the 2 litre hybrid with 200nm torque from each engine and a combined bhp of 186 (could be ~305bhp and 400nm of torque if remapped as it has a 2 litre 200bhp petrol engine with 200nm of torque and a 105bhp electric engine with 195nm of torque but you'll lose linear acceleration and the fuel efficiency that Toyota equipped it with) with good mpg, MacPherson suspension at the front, and multi linked individual suspension at the back, lower centre of gravity and 52.5:47.5 weight distribution for better cornering (and cornering assist). All in all a nice car that is pretty performant and has good features.

last time I drove a corolla was several years ago, probably a 2017 model. it wasn't an awful car, but to me, it felt like a step down in driving dynamics over the tdi I was forced to get rid of. I believe that model made about the same peak power as my old tdi, but obviously at a much higher rpm. the steering felt vague, etc. I was also cross-shopping a gti (whose price was very depressed at the time), so it wasn't entirely a fair comparison.

2019 was the release of their first performance model. With the hybrid option there's no turbo lag (that gti's are notorious for) and the steering is very sharp in sports mode (can also create custom profiles to adapt steering, suspension and dampners to your own likings). The hybrid model is better compared against the gte which has very similar specs to the gti.

The gte when I tested seemed heavy and the brakes were spongy compared to the gti (regenerative brakes but the corollas aren't spongy like that) and it was evident when the electric motor switched off.

I didn't realize they now had a performance model, thanks for sharing. tbh I'm probably going rwd on my next car (very interested in the new brz/86), but I'll keep it in mind.