BMW, Mercedes or Audi

[peace]

including German ones...are you sure? I prefer Germans over North Americans

 

[Chunky]

Not to put aspersions on people's choices, but my choice is usually to avoid all European cars, including the German ones. Road jewlery: they look good, but fragile.

I have to disagree with you on German ones being road jewellery. I own both a Mercedes and a BMW and drive a Ford 150 for business purposes. The repairs yes are much more expensive when it comes to the German vehicles but when it comes to reliability I have had nothing but praise for both brands. One is an 08 and the other a 2010 and I have never seen the inside of the dealership except for regular maintenance which is minimal with both vehicles. Albeit I don't pack on the kms on either car.

 

[blackram]

My opinion about European cars was formed early, because my first ever car that I owned was German, in university. Now I know it's not fair to base an opinion on a car that I owned 20 years ago, but from everything I've seen and heard about since, I stand by my opinion. Their reputation for reliability is overstated, more marketing than reality. The dealership where I bought my Japanese car also sells BMW's, and I gotten to know a few of the employees of the place, they told me stories about the sorts of problems that they see with Bimmers. For example, Bimmers might have good engines, but they are prone to mysterious little failures of things like stereos, lights, heaters, electronics & electricals, etc.

And then of course the cost of maintenance is sky-high. Part of the reason for that is because of the so-called German engineering. They seem to be unable to resist completely re-engineering the car over and over again, year after year. You'll find that there is almost no carry-over between model years in some cases, even the windshield wiper motors might be from a completely different source. Some might say this is a good thing, but what it really is that they don't get a chance to debug these cars and get the unreliability out. Instead of going from say version 1.0 to 1.1, they go straight to 2.0, and 3.0, etc. With parts that might only be required for one model year, but not the next, you don't get the volume discount on parts necessary.

A doctor friend of mine, who owned a Lexus before, upgraded to the Mercedes, and was quite puzzled to find out how much less reliable it was, despite paying twice as much for it. And he wasn't the only one that complained about this.

 

[oyster shucker]

So you are saying you enjoy tugging on something hard and long while you're driving?:shocking:

Nice car btw.

Hey, it's got a leather wrap, so at least I play it safe.:whip:

Btw, Oysters only, no barnacles.LOL

 

[Robintheboywonder]

Hey, it's got a leather wrap, so at least I play it safe.:whip:

Btw, Oysters only, no barnacles.LOL

Mine is automatic but I can drive it in sport and shift without worrying about have to clutch down. I almost went with the M series but for some reason I fell in love with the car I test drove and wanted the same one but with the navi.

 

[blackram]

Mine is automatic but I can drive it in sport and shift without worrying about have to clutch down. I almost went with the M series but for some reason I fell in love with the car I test drove and wanted the same one but with the navi.

I never did understand the point of those semi-automatic transmissions. I got one car with a real manual transmission, and the reason I shift the gears is because I have to shift them -- i.e. no other choice. I test drove a car with the semi-auto box, and after a couple of minutes of manually shifting it, the novelty got old already and I left in automatic mode thereafter. Who would use semi-auto mode when they get full-auto mode available?

BTW, if more people drove real manual transmissions, the use of cellphones while driving would go down immediately. There's no way to talk on the cellphone in the city without a handsfree device.