I've owned many kinds of cars, but always stayed away from the German cars because the Audis are nightmares after about three years, and BMWs and Mercedes both cost a ton to maintain. Ditto just about any European car, especially Jaguar. The price of the tow truck to follow the Jag around is cost prohibitive. Of course, Volvos are good and resilient. Haven't owned a Volkswagen since I was a young teen, when I had a little bug that you couldn't hurt with a sledge hammer. ------------------ The world is divided into two groups of people: Those who try to divide everyone into two groups, and those who don't.
I can't imagine that VWs these days would be any better than Audis (except their service departments might be better for all I know). There is so much crossover between Audi and VW these days (even the 1.8T engine in my A4 is used in the New Beetle, Passat and Jetta). Of the 15 or so cars I've owned so far, though, the worst by far was my Pontiac Trans Am. I had it for nine months, and it was in the shop for about five of those. And that was after buying it new off-the-lot. The thing had three transmissions during the time I owned it, once the transmission dropped as the thing was being driven from the dealership to the place I was using to sell it after just having the transmission replaced. After that, I have stayed far away from General Motors cars. I've had very good luck with Fords (I've had seven of them, well six Fords and a Mercury) and Japanese cars (I had a Celica back in high school that was great, and I mentioned my Acura that was pretty well indestructible. I also had a really ugly, used, piss-yellow Nissan NX1600 that I drove right after my divorce that ran really well. I also had a Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo back in 1989, but I only had it for a few months. I had to sell it when I got married. It worked fine the whole time I owned it, though). Man, that's a lot of cars for only fourteen years worth of driving. And again, my Audi would've been fine had I sold it just over a year ago right before the warranty ran out. Also, I don't know that Jaguars are as bad as they once were. My understanding from people who own them, the quality has gone up considerably in recent years since Ford took over. Of course, my family had an XJS when I was in high school, and the only problem it had during the time we owned it was a taillight going out (well, and it got stolen one night, but the police found it unharmed the next day). ------------------ [This message has been edited by mrpaige (edited June 23, 2001).]
