Quote:
Originally Posted by MkVer
Everybody knows somebody with a horror story about one brand of car or another. Most issues can be traced back to owners not taking proper care of their vehicle or taking them to shoddy mechanics.
There will always be folks who have horror stories of premature failures but if it was really that big of an issue the NTSB would have stepped in and forced a recall.
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Even though all vehicle models suffer problems, some are more prone to costly failures than others. These failures can be objectively quantified and compared across brands. In general European cars, and VW in particular, encounter problems at a higher rate of frequency than average.
I'm not sure how much failure can be attributed to neglect of maintenance. I contend that having more frequent replacement intervals for items that wear out is almost no different than having a higher frequency of failure. Both are costly.
I had a 1996 Subaru Legacy that I constantly praise for going 219,000 miles without a single problem, except for a catalytic converter that dropped below efficiency threshold, which I ignored since I lived in a non-DEQ county.
That said, Subaru has a well known design flaw that causes head gaskets to fail and require expensive labor to replace.
My question is, what are the most likely failures I might see with the 2010 Golf TDI?
Today I learned that it has a timing belt rather than a chain, and that the engine is an interference engine, so allowing the belt to wear out is an expensive proposition. By comparison, most of Toyota's lineup uses a timing chain that lasts the life of the vehicle, and many of the engines are non-interference so they will not suffer catastrophic failure if the chain were to break. This is something implemented into the vehicle at a greater cost, with the goal to improve long-term reliability which in turn improves resale value.