You dodged a bullet.

VW has gone down the drain.

Ford is even worse than VW, but VW is overpriced shit.

Funny, because the Beetle was very reliable and durable here in Europe, both in cold Scandinavian countries, and hot south European countries, and for driving the demanding roads in the alps. And here they were everywhere even more than a decade after production stopped. Very very durable and reliable cars. Also beating way more expensive cars in how old they got on average.

What they were not was well equipped with extras, or fast or powerful or particularly comfortable to drive, and they were also noisy.
But to say they weren't reliable?????

Did USA get some sort of second rate Beetle cars compared to Europe? Here we called it the asphalt bubble. I even have a neighbor who owns a late 70's beetle today, which still drives absolutely fine! Still with minimal maintenance!

I could understand if you were from Brazil, they had their own VW factory early on, and IDK if quality is the same on those? Maybe USA got VW from Brazil?

Yes, but that doesn't make the car unreliable.
Also funny story is that car safety is abhorrent in USA today compared to Europe. Especially with American pickup trucks.
USA was absolutely in the front on research on for instance seat belts, but Europe made them mandatory to have and wear first, because in USA it was delayed because they were afraid it would slow down car sales! (AFAIK)
Crash tests were expensive, so I bet that started in USA first too, because American car companies had way more money than in Europe.Still how did the Cybertruck pass? We've seen the crash test of that, and it's an absolute killer car for the driver in a crash. A broken neck is almost guaranteed!
There is no way Cyber Truck would pass car safety standards in Europe!

I understand your point, but have you driven a VW in the past decade? They are reliable, relatively easy to repair and have comfortable interiors that aren't with "hard plastic." Perhaps you've confused VW with Ford?

Had a 2023 VW ID4. They literally go out of their way to make your experience worse in many cases.

They have an app, they can read locked state, but can't lock the car.

Their app/website makes you completely re-sign in and re-accept cookies every month or so that breaks any API usage mildly like HomeAssistant.

The key unlocks the door if you walk to it, 50% chance to re-lock the door when you walk away without interacting with it.

Can detect tire pressure, but they don't tell you what it is, only if there is "pressure loss"

Backup camera was horrific quality, especially the field of view of a telephoto camera, especially compared to my 2015 Nissan altima

The entertainmrnt console was terible, extremely laggy, and Android auto was the worst experience. It would take between 2 and 15 minutes to connect to android auto with multiple different phones, and it would choose 1 app per phone to not display. My girlfriends' was her maps app which is insane. Sometimes I would be at my destination before it would connect.

Also putting a trailer hitch on it would have been like 1500-2000€...

For the tire pressure thing, that's because VW doesn't actually use sensors in the wheels. They calculate wheel circumference as you're driving and warn you if it changes, meaning you have a flat. On the one hand, you don't have to worry about sensors if you have winter tires, but on the other... having it show PSI would be nice.

Capped speed isn't enough. I want it to slam the brakes on the highway and go "Tired of the ads? Get the Volkswagen Battlepass and enjoy an uninterupted drive!"

Tell me more about the sensors & winter tyres. They arent a thing where I live.

If you buy a new set of wheels, the pressure sensors for the valve stems also cost extra, and I think have to be paired with the car using a scan tool, depending on the manufacturer. So if you've got separate winter and summer tires, the sensors have to get updated each time you change. (Maybe some manufacturers have figured out how to auto-pair based on proximity? but idk)

I understand your point, but have you driven a VW in the past decade? They are reliable, relatively easy to repair and have comfortable interiors that aren't with "hard plastic." Perhaps you've confused VW with Ford?

That schematic is basically worthless, first it's "per car", with no mention of average age or mileage.
Mercedes is no doubt among the absolute most reliable cars you can get, most Taxi drivers here use Mercedes for that reason.
But Mercedes also on average drive longer than most other cars, because people who drive a lot tend to prefer Mercedes more.
VW only ranking a couple places above Chrysler is laughable. There is no way that can be right.
Also Audi ranking below VW is ridiculous. Audi is to VW somewhat what Lexus is to Toyota.
Something is definitely off with that chart.

But I do not deny that Hyundai may have improved enough to be as good or maybe even better than VW, What I questioned was how they could have that reputation already few years after they clearly sucked on quality. Being reasonably good now, is exactly as expected though. Because when they were bad over a decade ago, they were so bad there are probably very few left on the roads. It was not just something that needed to be fixed bad, it was very much also end of life for the vehicle bad.

I skimmed the article to find the methodology behind the numbers, but couldn't find it.

The study, now in its 35th year,

That indicates my previous point, they don't account for age, it's easy to stay "average" if your cars are scrapped after a few years. It also explains the poor position of Mercedes.
Here for instance Volvo has a longer life span on average than Toyota. Toyota are good cars, but they are generally not built to last as long as Audi or Mercedes.
I bet you don't see as many 30+ year old Toyota as you do Mercedes.

Audi is full of shit. Don't chalk that pile of garbage up with Mercedes.

But, Toyota is easily better than any German brand. The reason why this just is garbage, is because Honda isn't on top of the list.

I'm actually fine with that. People don't need to go 0-60 in an intersection.

Of course! You change the entire (en-tyre?) wheel, not just the tyre. I kind of assumed it was a twice a year thing that you would do at a tyre shop.
I imagine its a pain but it must feel good going from slippery summer ones to something that sticks - to ice!?

Not really IMO, but I would personally never buy it, since it's an artificial limitation only meant to extort buyers for more money, for something that cost them nothing, and I would never reward artificial limitations and such shenanigans.

I'd probably look for some third party hack to unlock it for free instead, or probably buy another brand of car.

more horse power means more stress - the car will break more. Not only wouldn't I buy it I'd pay less for a used car if anyone ever paid for it.

Many people do just have one set of rims and have a tire shop swap them out. In that case they wouldn't have to charge the sensors, but you need to pay someone with a tire machine every time then.
I have 2 full sets of wheels so that means I can change them out myself at home, which is particularly useful if there's ever a surprise early snowstorm or I've been procrastinating swapping them.

Having proper snow tires with their soft rubber and special tread pattern definitely makes a huge difference in cold-weather traction.
Even if the road is dry but below freezing, a winter tire will handle a bit better because a summer tire's rubber is designed for higher temperatures and will go stiff in the cold.
The tread pattern is designed to have snow pack in and stick to it, since snow sliding on snow is actually higher friction than rubber on snow. With the right tires you'll bottom out your car in the snow before you get stuck from loss of traction.
Pure ice is a bit of a different story. The only real solution for that is tires with metal studs in them, but they're illegal to use on the public roads in the city because they tear up the asphalt.