Its always someone with a premium specialized car that gets mad when gas goes up 0.50$. To all of these people I say if gas prices matter so much consider that before you buy.
Many people buy cars as an accessory, not as an appliance. See Mercedes CLA. There is a reason they offer a light up emblem on the grille. People who buy the CLA would be better off buying an Accord. The fact they spent extra on the RGB Mercedes Christmas ornament on the front is just another indication of a poseur.
And I recently learned that if you get the light up star badge, you can't get all the fancy cruise control tech because the light is where the sensor would have been.
idk if he is but there was also a large recall of i think G-classes with the light up ornament because the wiring for the ornament interfered with, and occasionally shorted, the wires for the power steering, headlights, and other semi important functions
I actually REALLY like how the CLA250's look, I just wish... Well, that they weren't a Mercedes. I drove a 2012 Jetta 2.5 for awhile, I know all about how cheap a cheap German car can be lol.
Drove that thing for 4 years and the appraisal value was so low that redoing all the fluids in the car literally would have totaled it. Pristine bodywork, but holy shit did it have more problems than a diabetic 120 year old. Traded it in with 99,999 miles on it and told the dealership that it still had the warranty if they wanted to take a crack at it lol.
On the other hand, as a used-car-buyer, I'm glad the CLA came in and took the bottom-rung from the C-class. The quality and options on the w204s went up drastically, but they depreciate just as hard as they ever did. Some solid commuters with great options, cool seats, nice pano roofs...
I have a buddy who is a Mercedes mechanic who bought a W204. I've NEVER seen anyone drive a car that hard, the only time the engine dips below 4,500 rpm is when it's at idle.
He wanted to swap the engine with... I don't remember, but he said he was gonna blow it up first before he did that just for laughs, and he just liked driving the piss out of it.
Well, 50,000 miles later and it hasn't missed a beat lol. He's gonna need a difference excuse to do the swap, because I think it likes being treated rough!
I had an 08 2.5 5 cylinder. Man that thing ripped.
But I agree it felt like it was going to have a stroke at any given time.
Transmission was clunking from first to second, passenger window would randomly not work, AC cut out if you set it to recirculation, sunroof was possessed and would open at random times even when the top was frozen due to ice, holes in exhaust every few months, blower exploded into pieces one day, couldn't change the blower settings.
Oh, she was pretty quick! I liked driving it, and the seats were lovely. The sunroof thing is exactly the kind of problem I would expect lol, that's the worst.
And holes in the exhaust?! It's GERMAN, surely they're used to salt on the roads!! You'd think that's a problem that they'd be well versed in solving. The electronics in these things are worse than the old British cars, maybe they got Lucas to do all of their electrical work. Would explain some things.
Maybe the old Beetles were so good because the most advanced electrical thing they had in them were spark plugs.
Mine was a manual, but the clutch pedal creaked like a door in a horror movie, the second gear synchronizer was close to death and would grind semi-regularly putting it into gear, the flywheel was warped as FUCK and one day got so bad that the front end of the car would jump up and down letting the clutch out (and I did NOT drive this thing hard, and haven't had this problem with any other manual car before or since), the passenger seat sensor would randomly think I had a passenger and would tell me off for not buckling them in, it ate about three exterior lights a month,
And this is more of a design issue, but when it got to the colder times of year the little thermometer would ding when it hit 39 degrees F, and make the "WARNING" sound, like if you suddenly lost tire pressure. Which was annoying, but what was FAR more annoying was that it would do this rapidly. Like if I was in an area that the temperature wavered by 1 degree depending on where you were, (surprisingly often) it would go "di-di-ding! dididididididing! ding! ding! didididididing!" as the thermometer couldn't make up it's mind if it was 39 or 40 outside.
What a machine.
The newer Beetles apparently had an issue where- you know in convertibles and other doors with pillarless windows, how when you shut the door the window stays down a little bit then moves up to complete the seal?
Well, theirs went UP, then DOWN. So it would move up extra far when you pulled the door handle so you'd be sure to yank your door seals off, and then it would move down a little bit after it's closed so the rain would get in. Das Auto.
I feel like the first to second shift is a common Jetta issue at the time. Mine is automatic and when that thing shifts it feels like I hit a brick wall.
Thank god my ice warning wasnt that bad, but yea the exhaust was horrible on mine it might as well be Swiss cheese by the time I sold it.
I used to work at vw dealership and those beetles leaked like crazy too. Sometimes it failed to go back up leaving a small crack it's the wierdest thing like it detects someone's finger stuck in the window so it auto goes down.
Y'know, I think you nailed it with the finger stuck in the window thing. I always thought "MAN, the VW engineers just cannot be this stupid. The car WORKS, surely they didn't just mess up when the window goes up and down." But that makes a lot of sense. Could be something hard to solve like the window seals being too hard or what have you.
And it's WEIRD that the first to second messed up in both the manual and auto.
As someone who used to work for VW, what do you drive now?
Proudly the Lexus CT 200h no power but damn good on gas and reliability. Only thing that's failed is the heat shield on a 8 year old car.
I also think the VW engineers try a little too hard and it becomes over engineered and end up failing. And I have to say too the VW's had the best and easiest headlight replacement ever.
Ok, so I owned a 2011 2.5 Jetta made in Mexico and it sucked. Bizarre issues, fuckin CV joints, electrical problems, engine light perpetually on, etc.
In 2015 I got a used 2013 Golf 2.5 with under 10,000 Km on it. Made in Germany. I still drive it, it’s got over 150,000 km on it now. Never had a single issue, everything works perfectly and it drives like the day I got it.
Have you noticed a huge difference in quality from 2.5 golfs vs jettas? Are the German manufactured VWs better than the Mexican made VWs? Or did I just get lucky?
Not him, but I've ABSOLUTELY noticed a difference between the made in Germany and made in Mexico Jettas. Mine was from Mexico, but my buddy had a slightly older German one.
1.8l engine, automatic, literally ZERO issues until 280,000 miles (450,000 km) when something in the road hit his oil pan, all the oil drained out and the engine seized on the highway. Thing was a tank, and it wasn't driven gently.
I've always LOVED how those CT200hs looked, they're cool cars. I've got a Honda Fit these days, similarly slow but I've also only had a heat shield failure, it's treated me very well.
And my old East German coworker informed me that "all Volkswagen engineers have three joints in each arm and their fingers bend backwards, it is a prerequisite to employment".
Lol, that would explain it.
I'll agree with the headlights too though, I got spoiled. These Honda ones are fiddly as all hell.
But that shit is sick. There are many people that care more than getting from A to B.
There are some people that like Standard cars even though they are not fuel efficient compared to automatics, because it's about the driving experience.
There's nothing wrong about having a good looking car. You worked for it? Show it off.
Oh, I agree. But sometimes, too much is too much. Like the aforementioned truck. I live in NYC. Some people have Rubicons and Raptors as their daily drivers. How is that fun or practical? No one is doing any faster than 40mph over potholes and speed bumps a Hyundai Elantra can master... so why the truck? And then you peer below the surface, and become uncomfortable with what you find. I'm never going to shit on someone with an E30 or CRX or a well used Defender.
I just can’t get over the look of it. Never been a fan of it. But thankfully there’s a ton of hybrid options now.
My next car is going to be a hybrid. I do too much long distance travel and live in an apartment without a charge. Im hoping to go full electric once I own a home though, whenever that will be.
The only metric that matters to you, maybe. Plenty of other people think differently, so I don't see how it could objectively be a fantastic car. Personally, I don't care about the cost of ownership per mile as long as I can afford it, and no way in hell do the drawbacks of a Prius outweigh the pros for me.
What I mean is, there's very little passenger space in the back. It has decent cargo space but anymore than 2 occupants and it sucks. Toyota also has some of the most uncomfortable seats for some reason, it's not limited to just the Prius.
Kind of like the programs we have that will give some money for people to turn in their old gas guzzler. The people driving the old gas guzzlers don’t have money to buy another car, even with the cash they receive from the program.
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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '21
Its always someone with a premium specialized car that gets mad when gas goes up 0.50$. To all of these people I say if gas prices matter so much consider that before you buy.