I think most German cars have had a bad generation.
Mercedes: recent designs have been divisive, sometimes I see one and think they look ok and other times they elicit a yikes. More importantly, Mercedes don’t have a single car in their lineup right now that outshines their rivals. Usually there’d be at least one. There is no reason to have a Mercedes right now.
BMW: does it even need to be said? BMW has designs and recognisability that others would kill to have, yet they destroy that design language and pump out absolutely hideous cars. This is not a Chris Bangle moment. People aren’t initially reeling at these designs but coming around to them and seeing them as being amazing and ahead of the curve like those of the late 90s and into the 2000s. BMWs are ugly now. I’ve even seen car reviewers such as Johnny Smith literally censor the grilles in their videos lol.
VW: the drivetrains are still completely fine, but my god the cabin quality has suffered. The penny-pinching is insane. Touch controls galore, with no backlight for night time driving? Two window controls and a touch toggle to switch between controlling the front/rear windows? Are you fucking serious, VW? VW used to be the king of affordable priced car with an interior that was closer to the likes of Audi/BMW/Mercedes/Volvo than it was to Renault/Citroen/Honda/Toyota/etc. but they’ve thrown that away to save pennies.
Audi: ok their general design still holds up well. But their interior is being cheapened just like VW’s. No doubt a decision from the top. Also the e-Tron’s camera mirrors are unbelievably shit. The Honda e (fuck you Honda for discontinueing, btw) had a much better implementation. And it was fucking dumb to sell the e-Tron GT for £2k less than its Porsche equivalent. Who would buy an Audi when for £2k more you can buy a Porsche?
Porsche: ok Porsche is still mostly excellent, but the first gen Taycan has a little more screen than I’d like. The 2nd generation Taycan is genuinely an engineering masterpiece, though. It feels like the car has finally had as much love poured into it as they do their 911s. People should watch Engineering Explained’s technical overview of it, it’s staggering how much they’ve improved it. But Porsche is somewhat niche anyway, they’re not enough to make the overall German car market look better.
The most frustrating one is VW. They’re supposed to be the mass-market, default, bread-and-butter European brand. And of all times to fuck up, doing it in a time when people are still forming their opinions on EVs is such a massive fuck up. People will look at the ID.3, then look at the likes of the MG4 or upcoming Renault 5 and think “oh, so VW can’t make good EVs”, and that will stick to them for a long time. Look at how long people thought Skoda was a crappy brand for! It was only around 2010 when “huhu crappy communist 80s car” meme truly died. Perceptions last and they’re choosing to trash theirs to recoup some money lost to dieselgate.
Rant over. I’m pretty fed up with the car market right now. I’m gonna keep my MX-5 until the rust claims it.
German brands right now are engaging in stupid “premium theatre”, by which they make their cars seem premium by using stuff like fancy headlights or doors that sound good, but are completely cheaping out on other stuff to an extent that’s gotten ridiculous. They’re being lazy and just resting on their built-up brand image. And that image will collapse if they don’t pull their finger out.
It feels like the car has finally had as much love poured into it as they do their 911s. People should watch Engineering Explained’s technical overview of it, it’s staggering how much they’ve improved it.
But Porsche is somewhat niche anyway, they’re not enough to make the overall German car market look better.
I wouldn’t mind the dominant VAG-internal top-down trickle moving from Audi->VW to Porsche->VW.
Also for the record Porsches are about as common in Germany as Teslas. More common than Mazda or Mitsubishi. Granted, about 50% of those are Cayennes and Macans so that Bildungsbürger mums can drive Anne-Luisa to the farmer’s market.
Look at how long people thought Skoda was a crappy brand for!
Because it was, until the Czech moved from “VW but with less fuss, a proper Slav doesn’t need no fancy stuff but a workhorse” to “Eh the Wolfsburg guys are getting too crappy let’s get Bohemian”. It’s all VAG in the end but the brands do have their pride and independence.
On a slightly unrelated note, the Mercedes EQ class are really ugly, both internally and externally.
I think most German cars have had a bad generation.
Mercedes: recent designs have been divisive, sometimes I see one and think they look ok and other times they elicit a yikes. More importantly, Mercedes don’t have a single car in their lineup right now that outshines their rivals. Usually there’d be at least one. There is no reason to have a Mercedes right now.
BMW: does it even need to be said? BMW has designs and recognisability that others would kill to have, yet they destroy that design language and pump out absolutely hideous cars. This is not a Chris Bangle moment. People aren’t initially reeling at these designs but coming around to them and seeing them as being amazing and ahead of the curve like those of the late 90s and into the 2000s. BMWs are ugly now. I’ve even seen car reviewers such as Johnny Smith literally censor the grilles in their videos lol.
VW: the drivetrains are still completely fine, but my god the cabin quality has suffered. The penny-pinching is insane. Touch controls galore, with no backlight for night time driving? Two window controls and a touch toggle to switch between controlling the front/rear windows? Are you fucking serious, VW? VW used to be the king of affordable priced car with an interior that was closer to the likes of Audi/BMW/Mercedes/Volvo than it was to Renault/Citroen/Honda/Toyota/etc. but they’ve thrown that away to save pennies.
Audi: ok their general design still holds up well. But their interior is being cheapened just like VW’s. No doubt a decision from the top. Also the e-Tron’s camera mirrors are unbelievably shit. The Honda e (fuck you Honda for discontinueing, btw) had a much better implementation. And it was fucking dumb to sell the e-Tron GT for £2k less than its Porsche equivalent. Who would buy an Audi when for £2k more you can buy a Porsche?
Porsche: ok Porsche is still mostly excellent, but the first gen Taycan has a little more screen than I’d like. The 2nd generation Taycan is genuinely an engineering masterpiece, though. It feels like the car has finally had as much love poured into it as they do their 911s. People should watch Engineering Explained’s technical overview of it, it’s staggering how much they’ve improved it. But Porsche is somewhat niche anyway, they’re not enough to make the overall German car market look better.
The most frustrating one is VW. They’re supposed to be the mass-market, default, bread-and-butter European brand. And of all times to fuck up, doing it in a time when people are still forming their opinions on EVs is such a massive fuck up. People will look at the ID.3, then look at the likes of the MG4 or upcoming Renault 5 and think “oh, so VW can’t make good EVs”, and that will stick to them for a long time. Look at how long people thought Skoda was a crappy brand for! It was only around 2010 when “huhu crappy communist 80s car” meme truly died. Perceptions last and they’re choosing to trash theirs to recoup some money lost to dieselgate.
Rant over. I’m pretty fed up with the car market right now. I’m gonna keep my MX-5 until the rust claims it.
German brands right now are engaging in stupid “premium theatre”, by which they make their cars seem premium by using stuff like fancy headlights or doors that sound good, but are completely cheaping out on other stuff to an extent that’s gotten ridiculous. They’re being lazy and just resting on their built-up brand image. And that image will collapse if they don’t pull their finger out.
This one?
I wouldn’t mind the dominant VAG-internal top-down trickle moving from Audi->VW to Porsche->VW.
Also for the record Porsches are about as common in Germany as Teslas. More common than Mazda or Mitsubishi. Granted, about 50% of those are Cayennes and Macans so that Bildungsbürger mums can drive Anne-Luisa to the farmer’s market.
Because it was, until the Czech moved from “VW but with less fuss, a proper Slav doesn’t need no fancy stuff but a workhorse” to “Eh the Wolfsburg guys are getting too crappy let’s get Bohemian”. It’s all VAG in the end but the brands do have their pride and independence.
Yeah, until the mid 90s where VAG started throwing money at them, preparing for the takeover a few years later, not 2010-2015.
That’s my point, perceptions last a long time. Skodas were good long before the market caught on to that fact.