Jules writes:
On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:45:33 +0000, notbob wrote:

On 2009-12-18, Peter Huebner wrote:

And, talking of reliable European cars, I've known quite a few series 2
Volvos that cracked half a million kilometres ... Now that Ford are
messing with the Volvo design I think that will not be the case any
more, I won't buy another Volvo designed & built since 2006. Currently
driving an 850 wagon and an XC70. Wonderful cars to drive, but lots of
little things go wrong all of the time :-(

Even the supposedly best of them ...Mercedes and BMW.... are not
without flaws. My buddies SL head gasket leaks oil like the Exxon Vadez and its
paint went just as quickly as my same year Civic in the scorching CA
sun. Another friend's BMW dash upholstery split open like ripe puffball, and it
only 8 yrs old. I've seen brand new Mercedes with orange peel paint
to rival the worst from detroit.

I think the important part is in distinguishing between design issues and
manufacturing ones - i.e. whether there's something fundamentally bad
about the design, or if the fault lies with the way they're put together.
I'm not sure if you can say that a "European car" is bad if the faults are
all on the assembly side, and that assembly is done locally to the country
where the car is sold.

Friend of mine had a 750IL (yeah, the james bond one). The interior
pretty much disintegrated; many of the leds on the dash died, to the
point where you could no longer read the odometer. The passenger side
front door window broke every time the door was closed hard. He went
through at least three radios. 12 cylinders to service. Never again,
he said.

scott