Quote:I can only say from my personal experience that my wife's TDI after 60K miles has not one single issue, nothing.  I've been purchasing new vehicles since the early 80s, and this is the first time that's happened.  My current car is a 2011 Ford Mustang GT and it is a great car, but it has had a few issues, the ventilation system had an issue, the A/C started coming on occasionally, the automatic headlight sensor stopped working, etc.  Nothing major but nit picky.

 

VW still suffers from a reputation they built prior to about 10 years ago.  In the last few years their cars are pretty solid and the diesels can go practically forever if maintained properly.  German cars as you mention do cost more to maintain but I think the driving experience is second to none.

 

The great thing today is that even the "worst cars" in terms of reliability are still fairly reliable machines overall.