To think that after the less than honest activities of Volkswagen, now is the time to consider buying cars made in Britain

[sunnyspot]

There are lots of excellent cars assembled in Britain, e.g. Honda, Toyota,, providing much needed jobs in our manufacturing industry. Why buy a VW ?

It depends what you are buying. If you are going to a 10-year-old luxury Mercedes, then you can expect a world of hurt in repair bills, and hence a Lexus will be more expensive for a comparable car, because they are much cheaper to own.

OTOH if you are buying a new one, you might as well have the Mercedes, because you probably don't care about the reliability in 10 years time.

Interestingly the Americans are much more worried about reliability - they buy luxury Hyundais, Hondas, Kias, and Toyotas, because they are so much better built than the German competition, but in this country the most important thing is the badge on the back.

Too right OP. Everyone should drive a Morgan.

AK or Rick you're talking about direct bought warranties.
It's just data. Not information.
My personal experience tells me different. German cars are more expensive to repair with OEM parts I believe but that list throws up more questions than it answers.

Ah no Ego. The issue actually is that a diesel cannot meet Californian emission criteria. The software is embedded everywhere in VW diesel engines (probably) but would only ever have been activated in CA drive cycle testing.
VW diesel engines meet EU standards as will Japanese cars. VW made a stupid decision to push into the US market as one of the few diesels. If they hadn't done that we'd have heard nothing.
The recall here is almost certainly to remove the code that would never have been activated here.

Yes diesels are bad. All EU diesel engines are measured the same and VW are the same as every EU diesel engine.

I said No Ego but on rereading I think I mean yes!

RickRoll It depends what you are buying. If you are going to a 10-year-old luxury Mercedes, then you can expect a world of hurt in repair bills, and hence a Lexus will be more expensive for a comparable car, because they are much cheaper to own.

You're wrong. I've always had Mercedes, and I have never had bad repair bills. My 14 year old one just passed its MOT first time and I live up a rutted off road track. I've had one which was still going strong at 250,000 miles and another at over 212,000 (I only sold them as I fancied a new car, and they are easy to sell second hand even with that milege). Obviously if you do things such as replacing brake pads and checking tyres are legal before you put it in, it helps. If you are more interested in resale value then you will pay the Mercedes garage to do everything, to keep the Mercedes service history. But tbh if you do some of your own repairs, the Mercedes garages can actually be very helpful about ordering very small not very expensive parts, especially if it is an older model and they are interested in it. Every single one has been very, very reliable, and not expensive to repair.

There is a whole world of classic Mercedes out there that are very popular and not too expensive to repair because they are looked after. Even cars which were quite ordinary 20 years ago have now gone up in price because Mercedes is one of the few makes that does last. Its also interesting that Mercedes and some other luxury German brands do consistently lead the market in styling innovations that can look a bit avant guarde when initially introduced but which tend to be copied by other manufacturers a couple of years later. e.g. round headlights, now square sloping headlights.

Its also way more env friendly to run an older car which is reasonably emissions efficient than buy a new car which will be scarp after 8-10 years.

Interestingly the Americans are much more worried about reliability - they buy luxury Hyundais, Hondas, Kias, and Toyotas, because they are so much better built than the German competition, but in this country the most important thing is the badge on the back.

Americans buy big inefficient cars because gas is cheap and they don't care about styling. I mean they also like Ford Explorers which have to be the most uncomfortable, bad to drive, cars ever built. I think you're trying very hard to sell Japanese cars but I've been a passenger in a couple of those and in no way does the comfort level compare to that of a Mercedes, particularly if you have a bad back.

sunnyspot this is at least your second post on UK manufacturing and trying to understand opinions on buying British.

I've come first hand across people who have active mumsnet accounts who also post on behalf of organisations to gain insight.

If you are doing this, stop being such a cheapskate & get a focus group, study or polling done.

If you are not & are genuine then Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin should also be considered as UK brands (albeit with international ownership)

Because they're not up to the job. Bils got an old golf with 260 odd thousand miles on the clock that's still running. Nobody I know can afford to buy new trucks cars or vans so it's all second hand, usually around the ten year mark and there's not much that lasts like the Germans tbh.

All car manufacturers "game" emissions legislation (though it appears that most do so legally, and your UK government would prefer not to change the legislation that allows them to do so ).

OP isn't very well informed as not all European Toyotas are made in the UK - the biggest selling model is made in France.

I only buy Japanese cars, because the Japanese are probably overall the least likely to skimp on emissions treatment (because they are risk averse) and because Japanese brands are very reliable.

Every manufacturer is at it.

I have driven vauxhalls for 10 years and found them very reliable. I did swap to Nissan for 6 months which was a mistake!

I don't think what has happened with VW is a reason not to buy VW though, certainly isn't a reason not to buy any foreign brands at all.

OP raises an interesting question though. How many of us know where our cars were built?

Mine was made in the UK as it happens although that's not why I bought it.

My Toyota yaris came from France. We have an Audi and a Toyota both are good cars but are completely different. The Yaris is 10yrs old and has had no major money spent on it, the Audi 8yo and has had 1 major repair but generally both are very good and still going strong.

Best cars ever...skoda. Owned by vw. Had mine over 11 years of happy motoring. Wouldnt buy any other make now as why reduce my standards. .

That's right. The CA requires such low levels that it's unachievable in normal use without a major redesign of the diesel engine. And given the volume of diesel units they were likely to sell in CA it wasn't worth designing a new engine. Hence the calculated risk they could get away with rigging the test.
They lost their bet.
But in the EU there's no reason to rig.

My FIL likes to tinker with engines and he and his family almost always have German cars: BMW, Mercedes, VW, Skoda, Audi, etc. When he bought a Jeep Cherokee it was only so he could put a German engine in it.

I don't know whether this is because he thinks German engines are better and more reliable than other engines, or because they need more tinkering with, thus making them more interesting, though.

However, when he fixed the clutch on his SIL's Honda he was very rude about it.

Honda, Toyota and Nissan had to recall 35 MILLION cars this year, and nearly a million of those were in the UK, because they were found to have a fault which had killed people when the airbags went off.
It had been covered up for years.
Bosses knew about the fault, knew people had been killed but did nothing until they were forced to after a US lawsuit.

I think that is an awful lot more serious than fudging some data in a test before the car is even on the road.

Sorry for the Daily Fail link, but more info here
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3090826/Have-driving-killer-car-Honda-Toyota-Nissan-recall-600-000-vehicles-sold-UK-shrapnel-spraying-airbags.html

KnittingDad many Jeep Grand Cherokees already have Mercedes engines. That might be why your FIL bought it! Although they're not tuned to Mercedes levels, which might be why he wanted to tinker with it!

Buy British? I've owned two Rovers; they were both shit.

I wanted an estate car.

Skoda make good estate cars.

That's why I drive one.

My car is a diesel. It is one of those affected. It was built overseas.

I will still buy another Skoda despite this recent shitstorm.

Scremersford - Really? I had no idea. Thought they were an American company. He certainly put a new engine in it, which I guess would have been easier if it wasn't too different to the engine it had before.

CJC. Not quite sure what you are implying but yes I have posted before about buying British anything,not just cars, but only because it happens to be something I feel passionate about. I totally appreciate that not everyone feels the same but that is why we have these discussion forums.