How do VW (and Audi) do it?
Discussion
krisdelta said:
We had a MkV Golf that cost more to run than my M3 at the time - had to replace pretty much the whole fuelling system, pump, HT, plugs, coil packs, EGR. On top of that the A/C compressor failed, wheels corroded badly, alternator failed and it was very thirsty.
We have a Mk6 now...
I'm intrigued to know why, having been through that with one Golf, you then replaced it with another?We have a Mk6 now...
AnotherClarkey said:
It is a puzzle. Most of the VAG brands languish in the very average to poor sections of reliability surveys and are often outperformed by brands like Citroen (which in my personal experience were far more reliable than VW's I owned) yet the image persists. I can only agree that it must be a triumph of marketing.
Skoda?
matchmaker said:
AnotherClarkey said:
It is a puzzle. Most of the VAG brands languish in the very average to poor sections of reliability surveys and are often outperformed by brands like Citroen (which in my personal experience were far more reliable than VW's I owned) yet the image persists. I can only agree that it must be a triumph of marketing.
Skoda?Interesting how there a few people on this thread who've had problems and then gone out and bought another VAG. Is it the brand or is it that they are good cars that bring you back?
Me and my gf have owned 4 VAGs in the past and all but one was reliable with only minor niggles. No worse than Japanese cars we've also had except for a Honda where absolutely nothing went wrong at all!
I do wonder whether some of the problems are due to pushing boundaries and innovation on engines compared to most other manufacturers, like the 1.4TSI engine etc. More potential fir problems compared to older tech.
Me and my gf have owned 4 VAGs in the past and all but one was reliable with only minor niggles. No worse than Japanese cars we've also had except for a Honda where absolutely nothing went wrong at all!
I do wonder whether some of the problems are due to pushing boundaries and innovation on engines compared to most other manufacturers, like the 1.4TSI engine etc. More potential fir problems compared to older tech.
I've had a fair few German cars, the older late 90s/early 00s stuff seems to be the most reliable with the new stuff being pretty poor in that regard.
Whereas jap cars seem to be in a different league in terms of reliability. My integras and civics got hammered to within an inch of their lives and never had any problems. But then I also had a Passat that had done over 200k, in the end I scrapped it because water came in through the window seals and soaked the carpets and mould etc. But it was outside for over 6 month, and still started first time. No idea how!
Whereas jap cars seem to be in a different league in terms of reliability. My integras and civics got hammered to within an inch of their lives and never had any problems. But then I also had a Passat that had done over 200k, in the end I scrapped it because water came in through the window seals and soaked the carpets and mould etc. But it was outside for over 6 month, and still started first time. No idea how!
AnotherClarkey said:
matchmaker said:
AnotherClarkey said:
It is a puzzle. Most of the VAG brands languish in the very average to poor sections of reliability surveys and are often outperformed by brands like Citroen (which in my personal experience were far more reliable than VW's I owned) yet the image persists. I can only agree that it must be a triumph of marketing.
Skoda?
- but they're the only VAG car I'd have 
.If Skoda do better than VW & Audi in "reliability surveys", I'd suggest this is down to the Skoda owners having lower expectations than VW and Audi owners?
JackReacher said:
Interesting how there a few people on this thread who've had problems and then gone out and bought another VAG. Is it the brand or is it that they are good cars that bring you back?
Me and my gf have owned 4 VAGs in the past and all but one was reliable with only minor niggles. No worse than Japanese cars we've also had except for a Honda where absolutely nothing went wrong at all!
I do wonder whether some of the problems are due to pushing boundaries and innovation on engines compared to most other manufacturers, like the 1.4TSI engine etc. More potential fir problems compared to older tech.
At the end of the day reliability is not the number 1 priority for most of us.Me and my gf have owned 4 VAGs in the past and all but one was reliable with only minor niggles. No worse than Japanese cars we've also had except for a Honda where absolutely nothing went wrong at all!
I do wonder whether some of the problems are due to pushing boundaries and innovation on engines compared to most other manufacturers, like the 1.4TSI engine etc. More potential fir problems compared to older tech.
aw51 121565 said:
AnotherClarkey said:
matchmaker said:
AnotherClarkey said:
It is a puzzle. Most of the VAG brands languish in the very average to poor sections of reliability surveys and are often outperformed by brands like Citroen (which in my personal experience were far more reliable than VW's I owned) yet the image persists. I can only agree that it must be a triumph of marketing.
Skoda? - but they're the only VAG car I'd have .If Skoda do better than VW & Audi in "reliability surveys", I'd suggest this is down to the Skoda owners having lower expectations than VW and Audi owners?
Speak as you find, my experience over 2 Merc's and 3 Audi's has been total reliability, the only time off the road has been for tyre renewal and servicing. I must add all 5 were new company cars and changed at the 3 year or 100k mile point so this covers about 15 years of high mileage driving.
gvij said:
We never had any problem with our 5 other than steering racks and I think that was a supplier issue rather than VWs fault. Come to think of it we did replace the EGR. Everything else is great still. It has the Aisan 6 speed Automatic which is smooth, efficient and bulletproof.
It's funny how when you're a fanboi all of the blame for faults can be laid elsewhere. You know that Aisan is Japanese company?I can't comment on VWs generally, and have no particular allegiance to the brand, but we have a 12 year old (13 this year) mk4 Golf TDI 130, and it has been the most reliable car I've ever had by a country mile.
We bought it 5 and a bit years ago with 80k on it. It was a distress purchase to replace a terminally unreliable 4 yr old Renault (never again!) that had sprung its last four figure bill on us and which had to go. We've still got the Golf and it's now on 136k. It really is completely painless to own.
It gets serviced every 10k (as per the schedule), and I keep on top of other bits and consumables as they come up. Thing is, it rarely seems to need anything much doing. It is almost boringly reliable.
Clutch/DMF needed replacing at 120k (these were the original items, and 120k is a decent innings IMHO), which was the biggest bill I've had (£300 worth of bits and £100 to a mate to fit them). I also had to replace the battery the winter before last as it was getting a bit sluggish in the mornings.
Last year's MOT picked up a couple of advisories for cracked wishbone bushes and a perished outer CV joint gaiter. Got those sorted shortly after the MOT. Has just passed another test this morning with no advisories. Smoke test was an easy first run fast pass at 0.56m-1. No corrosion visible anywhere underneath. Uses about half a litre of oil between services ever 10k.
It has never once failed to start or let us down.
Not a pampered car at all. It lives outside, gets driven in all seasons, carts rubbish to the tip, and is washed maybe twice a year.
Handles like a blancmange-type pudding product, and the interior has a few creaks and squeaks here and there, but otherwise it's brilliant. I was only saying to a mate the other day that I am loathed to replace something that still ticks every box and keeps on going with so little grief and cost.
We bought it 5 and a bit years ago with 80k on it. It was a distress purchase to replace a terminally unreliable 4 yr old Renault (never again!) that had sprung its last four figure bill on us and which had to go. We've still got the Golf and it's now on 136k. It really is completely painless to own.
It gets serviced every 10k (as per the schedule), and I keep on top of other bits and consumables as they come up. Thing is, it rarely seems to need anything much doing. It is almost boringly reliable.
Clutch/DMF needed replacing at 120k (these were the original items, and 120k is a decent innings IMHO), which was the biggest bill I've had (£300 worth of bits and £100 to a mate to fit them). I also had to replace the battery the winter before last as it was getting a bit sluggish in the mornings.
Last year's MOT picked up a couple of advisories for cracked wishbone bushes and a perished outer CV joint gaiter. Got those sorted shortly after the MOT. Has just passed another test this morning with no advisories. Smoke test was an easy first run fast pass at 0.56m-1. No corrosion visible anywhere underneath. Uses about half a litre of oil between services ever 10k.
It has never once failed to start or let us down.
Not a pampered car at all. It lives outside, gets driven in all seasons, carts rubbish to the tip, and is washed maybe twice a year.
Handles like a blancmange-type pudding product, and the interior has a few creaks and squeaks here and there, but otherwise it's brilliant. I was only saying to a mate the other day that I am loathed to replace something that still ticks every box and keeps on going with so little grief and cost.
The MK4 was a great car. It gets slated as everyone wants the latest and greatest but it was ahead of its time. It wasnt the sharpest handling car but it was a comfy cruiser and safe as well as enjoyable to drive with a very decent well made interior and exterior. The Focus at that time was also a very good machine -handling and looks. Ford brought their next Focus down a long way for some reason. Toyota, Renault and the rest were never really in the running then or now.
In fact in 2003 I bought a new MK4 for 10k stg from Motorpoint and my friend bought a new Mazda 6 diesel for 20 and frankly I preferred the Golf. Today my old MK4 which my dad drives is worth more than the same Mazda 6!
In fact in 2003 I bought a new MK4 for 10k stg from Motorpoint and my friend bought a new Mazda 6 diesel for 20 and frankly I preferred the Golf. Today my old MK4 which my dad drives is worth more than the same Mazda 6!
They focus heavily on the items that the customer can see - interior touch and feel, exterior panel gaps etc however the stuff that the customer doesn't see does have a fairly significant failure rate.
We benchmark VW and all the other brands and VW spend a lot of money on stuff that doesn't make sense and then scrimped on other areas. For instance they use mechanical radiators which are just not as good as brazed then they use piddly fans on top of that.
They are a triumph of marketing.
We benchmark VW and all the other brands and VW spend a lot of money on stuff that doesn't make sense and then scrimped on other areas. For instance they use mechanical radiators which are just not as good as brazed then they use piddly fans on top of that.
They are a triumph of marketing.
JackReacher said:
Interesting how there a few people on this thread who've had problems and then gone out and bought another VAG. Is it the brand or is it that they are good cars that bring you back?
I dont think reliability is at the absolute top of anyones mind when they buy a car. Certainly any mercs or bmw's or renaults or whatever that i've owned have been no more or no less reliable.The one that stands out in the family as very reliable is my sons honda civic. I did look at one of the new ones before i got my golf, but dynamically they're quite average, and i was buying a newer golf for my £12,000 budget than honda.
OK, personally, had 8 Audi's since 98...
All A4/S4's bar an A6 and an S5
only one had had a stopped car failure (first B8 S4 with plastic water pump failure), and the only other mechanical issue was a new (manual) box for the S5 (started making a noise).
None have ended up stranded on the side of the road, and typically have done 20-30K a year, at a guess, some 225K miles between them.
I would call that pretty reliable?
All A4/S4's bar an A6 and an S5
only one had had a stopped car failure (first B8 S4 with plastic water pump failure), and the only other mechanical issue was a new (manual) box for the S5 (started making a noise).
None have ended up stranded on the side of the road, and typically have done 20-30K a year, at a guess, some 225K miles between them.
I would call that pretty reliable?
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff