It's true. Go up to 140 mph with a German car, do thhe same with a Japanese or an American car. Euro cars seem so damn rock solid at higher speeds compared to Japanese and American and i do not know why.

 

Because everyone cruises around at 140 mph.

And don't talk about racing because you won't see many owners taking their brand new production cars racing and the owners that DO actually take racing seriously won't have stock suspension/tires.

 

I've been to 145+ in both my SS's and my Z28...they were much more stable then my buddies S4

 

Now we know who the real nut is.

 

Go to an Audi dealer and TELL me German manufacturers don't pay more attention to fit/finish, overall quality and workmanship in their cars. then, go cruise in an A4 (hell, if you're lucky...an S4) at 140mph with Quattro and tell me to my face that it doesn't stay stuck to the ground better than an SS.

I don't own a german car, so there's no reason for me to defend them...I'm telling it how I see it, and from what i've experienced every time I've driven something other than an American car.

 

Germans have the Autobahn.

It would stand to reason that they would do a lot more sustained high speed testing and chassis tuning than an American or Japanese manufacturer (save for our higher-end sports cars).

 

Well yeah but the fact remainds that they still do.

 

I like German cars, certainly better than most Japanese cars only because German engineering feels more solid (than the Japs) and the cars do have more style than your comparable Toyota. However my view of VW is pretty bad considering some experiences friends of mine have had with them:

-Their interiors after about 20k miles smell like you're sitting in a box of Crayolas. A buddy of mine with an 02 Wolfsburg Jetta said its because of the plastic they use. Yuck.

-His ex-girlfriend who drives an 01 Beetle, was driving one day and all of a sudden, the drivers side curtain (near the headrest anyway) airbag went off without warning right next to her head, nearly causing her to run off into the damn trees. Then the VW dealer gave her crap for weeks but finally fixed it for no charge. Oh yeah, hers also smells like a box of crayons. Only an exploding box of crayons.

Thats just two of them, I'm not gonna turn this into a VW hate thread because they could be better with their new models but that interior reek alone would keep me away from them. I hope Audis do not possess this trait bc an Audi would certainly be a car I'd check out down the road.

 

The VW interiors certainly do seem to have better fit and finish when you buy them. But after you get a few miles on the car, the problems start popping up. Like rattles worse than an Fbody within a year or so, and electrical and mechanical problems. Ah well, at least it looked good on the showroom.

 

Huh. I don't know where all the interior criticism is coming from. I had a 2000 Jetta and the interior, other than being hard to clean, didn't have any issues. The gaps were still tight at 85,000 miles and the car was as rattle free as they come. I can also report no strange smells. The car rode and handled like a million bucks until the day I sold it.

Don't get me started on the mechanical problems, though...

 

Perhaps they changed the interior materials after 2000? Every VW Ive been in (from 01-04) have had that crayon smell and it is NASTY

 

Weird. I have mostly been in 01s and 02s, and they were rattling within a year and another strange thing was the door grease that turns to liquid in the summer here and flows out of the hinges.

 

We had an 2002 passat up until a little over a year ago. It never had any rattles or funny smells. The only problem we had were the faulty coils. Otherwise car performed perfectly. VW makes good cars, that was why we picked up a 06 Jetta TDI. There is no comparing a GM interior to VW. VW has them beat hands down. They really do over build these cars, they feel so solid when you drive them.

 

Ask your local machinist what he thinks of the VR6

 

Stability at speed is just as much of a function of the balance of the tires as anything. I'd say that's about the only plausible explanation other than you probably just being biased and wanting to believe what you want to believe.