FRANKFURT (dpa) – The once respected “Made in Germany” seal of high quality, one of the biggest selling points for the German car industry, is losing its shine with car buyers.
The letters pages of German car magazines suggest an increasing number of buyers are dissatisfied with their new German cars.
They include a 28-year-old buyer of one upmarket model that travelled only 12.5 kilometres before breaking down, the 22-year-old nurse whose new small car was delivered with faulty steering, and the pensioner who complained his car’s exhaust pipe rusted through within just a few months.
“Just what is wrong with our cars?” the popular “Auto Bild” newspaper asked recently. Another leading journal, “auto motor und sport” carried a derisory list of the most common complaints about German cars and wrote: “Confidence in quality is disappearing. Fatally, this is affecting the makes that call themselves premium.”
The German motoring organisation ADAC has known about the problem for some time: Japanese cars regularly top the reliability league in its annual breakdown statistics, coming out streets ahead of German competitors.
Cases of manufacturers having to recall new models because of technical problems have become so common that they hardly raise an eyebrow any more. Last year there were 94 recalls, compared to 58 four years ago, vehicle authorities said.
All the larger German manufacturers have had to recall models since the end of last year. Mercedes has had two such incidents. Recalls are only necessary if they influence car safety such as braking, chassis or steering. Drivers rarely get to hear whether other faults such as engine problems, rust or electronic defects were common to their particular model.
Car buyers and specialists in other countries are also recognising weaknesses in German cars. After the “elk avoidence test” by Swedish test drivers drew attention to stability problems in the new Mercedes A-Class, the Norwegian automobile association has also taken other German cars to task.
Paul Anderson, member of an official complaints office for car consumers, said the most common complaints were about the VW Passat, Mercedes Vito and A-Class models, and Audis.
This is not news to test drivers from “auto motor and sport”. Complaints range from gearbox and engine gremlins in Audis, to Porsche sportscars that let in water, engine defects and noises in BMWs, and faulty brakes, gears and steering in Mercede models.
Goetz Weich, head of the ADAC traffic department, said time pressure in car building and parts manufacture were among the main causes of poor quality.
“Short development periods are also a decisive factor,” he said.
Is the customer becoming the guinea pig? asked the ADAC recently, after its latest survey of 8,000 drivers of small cars. German cars most frequently needed repair, the survey revealed.
Car executives also admit the Lopez-effect is another cause of quality problems. José Ignacio López. the initially celebrated and later discredited chief buyer for Opel and VW, put so much pressure on car parts suppliers that they neglected quality in order to be able to deliver cheaply.
“The Lopez effect is infiltrating the industry,” said a production expert. But he also named another cause for the failures. Some companies for a time neglected real testing and relied too heavily on computer simulations. “Japanese companies were more hesitant about doing this,” he said.
