I bought a 2nd VW recently after having a bunch of Japanese cars, great car so far, but I already felt the premium on parts. Even the light indicator bulbs are Philips only and cost 2x the generic one in the shops. Just hope no big stuff fails on it.
Japanese cars are so easy and cheap to fix here along with the luxgens.
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The sentras, corollas and altis are the greatest bang for your buck. Those things will run 20 years with hardly any issues and cheap and easy parts and repairs. You can get shops to outfit them pretty well with sensors and cameras.
I just spent 10k on a new tablet and rear camera for my 10 yr old VW car, was an easy and cost efficient upgrade.
Yeah it doesnt have automatic braking radar etc etc but I don’t need that. What I need is a smooth safe comfortable reliable ride with cameras for parking and good mileage/ntd.
I think if you are hanging around Taiwan at least five years new cars aren’t a bad deal with the warranties etc.
That’s not true. Toyotas are much more reliable and robust over the long term now than VW, Mercedes or BMW.
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I’m not sure what you mean by “reliable” or “robust” but I was talking about the engine lifespan. Most German cars can run 200k-300k miles. Perhaps Toyotas have recently caught up, I don’t know.
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No luxgens on the list :)?
Ford Focus?
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I was thinking the same. If fords are cheap, then that is surely a contender.
The latest 2023 Ford Focus starts at 840k NTD, which seems competitive with the global pricing.
This study disagrees with you.
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Looks like Japanese cars have finally caught up.
Also, the study doesn’t disagree with me. It only lists the top 20, and stops at 230k. Between 200k and 230k are probably all German cars. They’ve been able to do that for decades, back when you’d be lucky to get anything over 100k-150k out of a Japanese car.
Since the 70s…
They also have lists in other categories, and the only German cars that made the cut were
Porsche Cayenne (152,563 miles) and BMW 7 Series (133,545 miles).
And guess which brand has the worst reliability according to Consumer Reports?
https://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1137854_consumer-reports-ranks-toyota-lexus-most-reliable-mercedes-worst
BTW, Volkswagen is also among the least reliable, ranking 22 out of 24.
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And Japan probably isn’t even at relative peak awesomeness - a couple decades ago they really stood out compared to others.
I’m not sure what @user86 is basing his feels about this on (other than his one short term ownership stint at a mileage where most cars don’t require anything other than fluids?) - it’s practically a holy writ that you’re going to be paying some big bucks owning a German car out of warranty (amongst our 3 VWs, the GTI has been super reliable. the other two, much less so - the big dollar items we’ve had to replace were two turbos and the entire fuel system when the hpfp exploded (that was a $5k repair - pump, tank, all lines… I’m sure other shit needed to be replaced too)). Our rsx (sold at 250k - confident enough that it still had a lot of miles in it that we sold it to a friend) had over 400k on it last I inquired (last year) and needed a cat converter (a wear item when you get up in mileage) and… umm, what else… oh, an 02 sensor. that’s it. on it’s diet of $20 pep boys oil change specials.
edit: for.the record, I don’t think German cars are unreliable (especially the drivetrain), but they are undeniably more expensive to maintain (it is really easy to look up part costs), and anecdotally (polls show this too, but for.the sake.of argument we’ll just throw that into the anecdote bucket) require more maintenance. And while reliable, I don’t think they’re as reliable as Japanese cars.
The Solio is also highly coveted but really hard to find.
I am not a fan of US cars but recently got to experience a Ford Fiesta and was pleasantly surprised.
Problem with higher cars in Taiwan is parking. Especially those places with plumbing sticking in mid air…
You have to check where they are made, they have large factories in China, Mexico and India covering the selective markets. Even in Europe they where importing cars to cover demand the German factories couldn’t keep up with.
So where are the reliable ones made? My Jetta was made in Mexico.
Brothers Golf was made in Germany and gave him lots of problems, His Tiguan I think is Mexican no problems he just don’t like the feel of it after the first few months (just over a year old now). all his cars are new and changed at 2 years old. His wife liked her beetle but wasn’t cheap to run, don’t know where that was made. He is the car person not me, so when I was recently looking at a Polo here I asked what he thought. He said check where it’s manufactured and the reliability from that factory as they are not all equal.
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Enthusiast seem to think the Gean made ones are better
But my hecho en Mexico GTI had the least issues. The Jetta also came from Mexico, but the big expense came from made in Germany parts. The Golf R did not seem to be put together better in any appreciable way.
Luxgen looks okay to me especially for the price, the fit out and the warranties and easy to get parts. Plenty of cars are made in Taiwan in JVs aswell such as Nissans and Mitsubishis and Fords.
I bought a VW just for something different but with the local cars I never sweated about anything. My imported Hyundai was the worst when the recycled plastic started breaking down.
When thinking inexpensive that to me would mean local. It wouldn’t…probably couldn’t ever be an import for a NEW car.
I bet you those prices quoted above are just for the basic models of those imported cars.
I was looking at the Nissan Kicks a while back when I was thinking about buying a cheaper new car. I probably would have bought it if we hadn’t left Taiwan. It seemed pretty good although the motor lacked power.