VW = made in Mexico. Audi = made in Germany.
They're built to different standards and expectations.

 

Is that a sports tilt?

 

Don't get the word engineering and quality mixed up. Im a BMW technician and while German engineering(specifically BMW) is second to none in most aspects(electronics, features, engines, materials, suspension etc.), I have to question their philosophy on design. The quality build seems to only go skin deep in alot of areas. Almost as if they only worry about what the customer can see/feel/touch.

As an example, BMW chooses to use materials that are second to none to form the interior, but skimped and used cheap plastic to make up most of the cooling system(parts of the radiator,expansion tank, thermostat housing, heater valve/auxilary water pump, etc.). After the hundreds/thousands of heat cycles a car goes through over a few years, the plastic becomes brittle and cracks. This is just one of many areas of cost cutting I see that can ruin an overall amazing machine, and in the process frustrate the customer.

 

While that is quite probably the case, they are not "separate companies" as you put it. Perhaps separate brands with different quality, but they are all part of the same automotive group. Additionally, most of the VW parts are still designed and produced in Germany although final assembly for the US market is in Mexico.

 

....post all the studies you'd like . I worked at a Audi/Vw dealer from 99-04 . They are( better say were , I havent payed attention since 04) in fact plagued with electrical gremlins , coil problems and interior trim durability issues ...and you though dash pieces just broke off or fell off GM interiors

 

see that's the thing, I've acknowledged your valid points. you however, never seem to return the favor. instead you resort to personal attacks because you don't seem to want to acknowledge that there's a possibility you DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING.

case in point, what did you say to my comment about an import branded car that's, you know, actually imported vs a GM branded import? nothing. maybe you're having another "fat" day and feel the need to put down someone else to make yourself feel better. i dunno.

for the record, YOU made it personal. I made a _comment_ to your comment. then YOU saw it fit to argue, got defensive and started with the personal attacks. because anyone who doesn't agree with you is automatically an idiot, apparently. never mind the fact that your original point about the Aveo being "resold" to GM is utter bullsh1t, which is what I've call you on in the first place...

less. a lot less. in fact I'm the first to criticize GM when/where it is due.

what you are doing is something completely different. in every thread where the discussion is anything _remotely_ import/domestic (like this one) you show up like clockwork to muddy things up and start your blathering about how wonderful imports are and how they're all made here now and how we should love them too. frankly it got annoying to the point where I had to speak up.

look, you don't NEED to justify to US the decisions you've made to buy your imported cars (well at least one of them is for sure).

and finally, you're posting on a site mostly dedicated to GM automotive-dome and you're SUPRISED many people here are biased toward GM? at least we allow your opinion to be heard, unlike the knuckleheads on the import boards who OPENLY wish all American manufacturers to fail so the Japanese can take over. now THERE is a closed minded bunch of idiots.

All I'm saying is I suggest you go and expand your energies on THEM a little more and on US a little less. We're doing OK without you, thanks.

 

exactly. where a car is made is irrelevent if the materials used for construction are inferior. I had to replace a cracked, plastic coolent flange on my sister's 99 Jetta with a 2.0L NA engine. this is the exact same engine that was assembled in germany and is also used, with the same crappy parts, in the Audis of the same time frame.

 

Well once again this thread is useless.

 

There is no 2.0L N/A engine used in North American Audis, just FYI

 

There's a 2.0T that replaced the 1.8T for 2005.5 and up (that's what's in my A4), and then a 2.5 n/a that was in the 06 Jetta they gave me as a loaner while my Audi was at the dealer.

My Audi definitely felt like a much better made car than the Jetta, but a lot of that may have more to do with the Audi being 50-100% more expensive car - the Passat would be a much closer comparison.

Anyhow... like I said, I know the Audi isn't made to last; that's why I leased it. #1 factor to me was price, and #2 was fun to drive.

Next time around I might buy instead of lease and if I do I'll get an IS350, which is what I wanted from the beginning but they wanted to rape me on the lease rates.

 

You leave the Audi out of this! Mine is nothing but solid, reliable, noise free.

 

Looks nice, will probably be dirt cheap, and while I could use my GM card points to purchase it brand new for less than $8,000, I will pass. It says Chevy, but its really a Daewoo...

 

I've seen them in dealer adds in the paper for 8000 without GM card rebates IIRC, but also IIRC the GM card rebate max on Aveos is pretty minimal... like 1000 at the most?

Still... if you could get a brand new one for 7 grand that's pretty hard to not appreciate.

 

A couple of things to consider when looking at the really simplistic argument of "Daewoo=Korean, Honda=Japanese" argument.

Profits go to GM. GM is an American company. Even though the car is Korean and virtually everything about the car is Korean - from it's design to it's part conent, to where it's assembled, the profits are GM's. GM invests more in this country than America does. Period. It's undisputable. The post has been floating around here before (I'm not going to repeat it): number of workers employed, etc. So, by putting profit into a GM purchase, you are indirectly helping your country more than by putting profit into a Honda or Toyota vehicle. I don't care if you like it, the fact remains that GM has a larger presence in our economy.

2nd point: The larger picture is that the Aveo is an entry level car to provide GM an entrant in he Korean/cheap-car market. This is the fastest growing segment in the auto-market. It provides GM with an opportunity to acquire a customer. If they do well, perhaps their next car with be another, "more American" GM vehicle: a Saturn Aura, or a Pontiac G6, or a Chevrolet Impala. It gives GM an opportunity it wouldn't otherwise have. Seeing what automotive loyaly can be, it's a rather short-sighted view to look at just a single auto-purchase.

 

As I've already said; the profit made on a car and where it goes is of little consequence as compared to where the rest of the money goes. I'm well aware of the post discussing how each manufacturer contributes on average but that's because GM doesn't make most of their cars outside of north america. We aren't talking about GM as a whole, we're talking about the economic impacts of one of their cars in particular; one that sends most of its money to Korea rather than US.