Hi Scotty,
i want to buy A cheap reliable diesel car from Germany thats economical and cheap to fix.
it has to be a manual
Do you have any recommendations?
Cheap reliable German is an oxymoron.
Your best option would be to find a manual diesel Jetta/Octavia (Jetta platform), as they’re quite reliable with Diesel engines.
Realize the rest of the vehicle will still be an over engineered German money pit.
But good luck.
But are the VW cars from Germany Better quality then the USA or is it the same and are they both crappy cars
The USA VW are made in Mexico, that’s why the made in Germany vehicles are much better quality, to begin with. The actual engineering is still the same, they’re both over engineered & cost a fortune to repair in the USA. The reason they’re popular in Europe is because they have a lot of cheaper aftermarket parts & a lot more mechanics are familiar with working on German vehicles.
If you’re in the USA, I’d skip them or lease them brand new & return it when the lease is up.
Thank you for all the info!👍
No worries & all the best.
My 2012 VW Golf TDI was made in Germany, which is probably why it isn't broken all the time. I have ranted on some of the issues I've had on this forum, but I will say it is very fun to drive and the MPG is ok. I won't buy another though, too many hassles and things breaking when they really shouldn't (in my opinion).
Honestly I bought it before I found Scotty. I was under the impression that the car would be mega bulletproof but it seems I was mistaken lol. If I could go back I'd buy a Toyota or Honda (and thats what I'll do when it bites the dust).
I guess VW is your only choice. They lured me in with this new advert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT4jMRcpoRY
I still see those on roads
If you're based in the US or Canada, good luck. From what i see on the forum here plus Scotty's videos they tend to become a disaster area from 50k miles onward.
If you happen to be in Europe, you may be in luck. 10+ year old German built TDi Golf/Jetta, be sure it's a fairly basic trim level as there is less likely to be over-engineered junk electronics on board. There are plenty of 2005-2010 Golf and Jetta on the road here with north of 200k miles. These would almost always a manual gearbox as they make up 80%+ of vehicles sold in EU, so I can't attest to the longevity of these with an autobox.
N.B. Open the hood and check along the edges where hood meets frame for a steel plaque showing the vin number, vehicle weight and some other info, if it says VW Italy then run away very quickly
I hope at least some of the above is of help!
