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Once the envy of the world, Germany's car brands now weigh heavily on its struggling economy

  • Germany’s car industry was once recognized around the world for its high-quality, innovative internal combustion engine cars. But things have changed since then.
  • The industry is facing a range of issues, from regulation to macroeconomics, China and EVs.
  • Issues in the automotive sector may also have spill over effects onto the wider German economy, which has been struggling for some time now.
watson387 ,
@watson387@sopuli.xyz avatar

Did not read the article, but when you sell cars that have full functionality but put the actual functions behind a paywall, this is what I’d expect.

CosmoNova ,

They’re merely raking in slightly less massive profits compared to last year. They could probably make up for it by simply not paying out massive bonuses for higher ups, but we all know they’ll cut jobs instead unless they get that sweet tax payer money. Greedy scumbags.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Didn’t the Volkswagen get super popular in part because it was cheap in a bad economy? It wasn’t solely because of Hitler endorsing them, right?

Foni ,

Maybe selling parts of your car as subscriptions isn’t a good idea. I’ve only read that Mercedes and BMW are doing it.

Nastybutler ,

You forgot Toyota

Cort ,

Isn’t Tesla doing it too?

Reverendender ,

I read this a few days ago about BMWs having plastic engines now. I plan to avoid.

KnightontheSun ,

To be clear to those just reading your comment without clicking through to your reference, the engine is not plastic. The block is still metal, as are the internal parts, but there are a lot of plastic bits all over joining things together (cheaper and perhaps planned obsolescence). Too many parts on the engine being plastic obviously makes for reliability issues (as your link describes).

badbrainstorm ,
@badbrainstorm@lemmy.world avatar

Living in LA, you’d think BMW was doing great. There’s an obnoxious asshole in one, endangering the lives of everyone around, everywhere you go!

FundMECFSResearch ,

In Switzerland, Audi is the rich arsehole car. Where I live, they tend to have Geneva plates

badbrainstorm ,
@badbrainstorm@lemmy.world avatar

I see rich arsehole cars daily. Audi, Lamborghin, Ferarri, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porche, etc. But 9 times out of 10, when I roll my eyes about someone driving like a piece of shit, or annoyed by their obnoxious exhaust, it’s a BMW

FundMECFSResearch ,

Ah I get what you mean. But by arsehole I mean speeding tailing and cutting people off.

Here BMW is more the drug dealer car lol.

ravhall ,

Stop innovating and you die. Nothing to see here.

AbidanYre ,

The last innovation I heard about from BMW was subscription based heated seats.

ravhall ,

I heard the steering wheel is also subscription

orclev ,

They tried making subscription turn signals but nobody bought them. /s

ravhall ,

HAH! 😂

Addv4 ,

I don’t even think it’s a question of innovation, more just perceived reliability. A large part of the reason Mercedes and other German brands were considered high quality was that they were more reliable than a lot of other brands on the market, while being good to drive. That isn’t really the case anymore, and Toyota and Honda have that basically cornered that market to the point that it’s an outlier to fine one that isn’t reliable.

ravhall ,

As a (multiple) Toyota owner for 25 years, I can attest to their quality, nothing has ever… ever, failed on me, and I still see my old 2003 Corolla on the road (friend)

phoneymouse ,

Yeah - I never would buy a German car again in my life. Had a VW Jetta that died at only 130k miles. I’ve watched friends with BMWs get stuck with $4k repair bills with only 40k miles. The only reason they sell these days is because of this perception that they’re “luxurious.”

mox ,

A large part of the reason Mercedes and other German brands were considered high quality was that they were more reliable than a lot of other brands on the market, while being good to drive.

“Good to drive” is a bit of an understatement. German cars have enjoyed car enthusiasts’ favor for decades, despite often mediocre reliability, specifically because they were great to drive. There are multiple dimensions to that, ranging from the safety advantage (and fun) afforded by giving the driver a good feel for what’s going on between the tires and the road surface, to an excellent balance of responsiveness and comfort from well-designed suspension. VW even ran an ad campaign around it: Fahrvergnügen

Japanese and American cars generally could not compete in this area.

However, those same German cars also became famous for developing endless little problems over the course of ownership, from annoying rattles to failing parts that were either expensive to buy or difficult to reach (and therefore expensive to replace).

If there was a time when German cars were known for above average reliability, I think it must have preceded the more recent generations. Maybe back before Japan had started investing in this area?

Addv4 ,

Sounds about right. Most of the Japanese manufacturers have had to put a higher amount of effort on reliability, in large part due to Toyota’s amazingly strenuous testing of reliability before they even consider dropping a new product on the market. As a bit of a bonus to that, once reliability was upped, making more sporty cars could be achieved because you had the budget to change around the driving dynamics of a car without making it inherently unreliable. The Miata is probably the best example of this, as while each generations drivetrain usually isn’t too special (outside of being high revving), it manages to handle well and be reliable while doing so.

dogslayeggs ,

Mercedes and BMW were never known for reliability. They were known for combining luxury and a great driving experience, which couldn’t be had from any other car company, even Porsche (which was only about driving not luxury until recently) or Cadillac (only luxury and not driving until recently). German engineering has been famous for poor reliability since at least the early 80s.

yesman ,

No, it’s stop innovating, build a monopoly, never change. The automotive industry (in Germany and the US) is just blue collar wall st. : too big to fail.

Stop talking “free markets” when the competition is taxed at 40%

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