Addv4@lemmy.worldtoWorld News@lemmy.world•Once the envy of the world, Germany's car brands now weigh heavily on its struggling economyEnglish
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13 days agoI don’t even think it’s a question of innovation, more just perceived reliability. A large part of the reason Mercedes and other German brands were considered high quality was that they were more reliable than a lot of other brands on the market, while being good to drive. That isn’t really the case anymore, and Toyota and Honda have that basically cornered that market to the point that it’s an outlier to fine one that isn’t reliable.
Sounds about right. Most of the Japanese manufacturers have had to put a higher amount of effort on reliability, in large part due to Toyota’s amazingly strenuous testing of reliability before they even consider dropping a new product on the market. As a bit of a bonus to that, once reliability was upped, making more sporty cars could be achieved because you had the budget to change around the driving dynamics of a car without making it inherently unreliable. The Miata is probably the best example of this, as while each generations drivetrain usually isn’t too special (outside of being high revving), it manages to handle well and be reliable while doing so.