Yes, but that doesn’t make the car unreliable.
Also funny story is that car safety is abhorrent in USA today compared to Europe. Especially with American pickup trucks.
USA was absolutely in the front on research on for instance seat belts, but Europe made them mandatory to have and wear first, because in USA it was delayed because they were afraid it would slow down car sales! (AFAIK)
Crash tests were expensive, so I bet that started in USA first too, because American car companies had way more money than in Europe.Still how did the Cybertruck pass? We’ve seen the crash test of that, and it’s an absolute killer car for the driver in a crash. A broken neck is almost guaranteed!
There is no way Cyber Truck would pass car safety standards in Europe!

Turns out that when the tests are mandatory safety checks performed by an independent third party, a study shows VW is the clear winner.

https://www.autoparts24.dk/press/stor-undersoegelse-her-er-bilmaerkerne-med-flest-fejl/

Here Tesla is claimed to be the cheapest to maintain, but they also have the worst failure rate of any brand here in Denmark at similar safety checks as in Germany. Although the failure rate is even higher here with 33% which used to be completely unheard of.

So cheap maintenance does not mean high reliability. 😋

Here the picture is very different, admittedly this is a German study, but by TÜV which is a very reputable company, the biggest company responsible for mandatory car safety checks at periodic intervals.

https://www.autoparts24.dk/press/stor-undersoegelse-her-er-bilmaerkerne-med-flest-fejl/

VW was never comparable to Toyota.

VW actually beats even Toyota, it’s a couple of years old. But I doubt this has changed much.

This is a very solid stat, for a big country, and the checks are mandatory. So not dependent on brand methodology.

For instance here Tesla is said to be the cheapest car to maintain after purchase and under warranty. But they do a piss poor job, so a whopping third of the cars fail their first mandatory safety check after 4 years. (after that it’s every 2nd year). No other brand is even close to as bad.
VW is among the more expensive, because they have very strict service requirements while under warranty. But I guarantee your chance of passing mandatory safety check is similar to the German, about 2% failure, compared to 33% failure for Tesla. The failures of Tesla are even pretty serious, like steering and brakes! While for other cars Steering is an unheard of failure.

In the study Tesla 3 is also the worst after 2-3 years, with 14.7% of the cars having a security problem!
So being cheapest is absolutely not a sign of being reliable!

There are many ways to make the stats, but the above study is in my opinion much more reliable than what you showed that is based on price, and AFAIK not based on mandatory safety checks.

Unfortunately we don’t have the same amount of data here. So where Hyundai is is unknown, but definitely VW ranks clearly as #1.

As I strongly suspected the study you showed does not give an accurate picture of reliability.
It was just so obvious. The study I show is based on mandatory safety checks, that is equal for all cars.
And in that much more reliable and comparable study VW wins.

That’s actually a good way to measure for similar cars. But still a luxury car is obviously more expensive to repair, and that does not make it unreliable.

Funny, because the Beetle was very reliable and durable here in Europe, both in cold Scandinavian countries, and hot south European countries, and for driving the demanding roads in the alps. And here they were everywhere even more than a decade after production stopped. Very very durable and reliable cars. Also beating way more expensive cars in how old they got on average.

What they were not was well equipped with extras, or fast or powerful or particularly comfortable to drive, and they were also noisy.
But to say they weren’t reliable???

Did USA get some sort of second rate Beetle cars compared to Europe? Here we called it the asphalt bubble. I even have a neighbor who owns a late 70’s beetle today, which still drives absolutely fine! Still with minimal maintenance!

I could understand if you were from Brazil, they had their own VW factory early on, and IDK if quality is the same on those? Maybe USA got VW from Brazil?

Your “perspective” may have been well meant, but to me it reeked of parroting Russian propaganda.
Also I get that people used to not want to work for the military. Peace in our time and all that. What civilized person wouldn’t want that?
But for me that changed when Russia invaded Ukraine again. We cannot afford to just stand by while Russia has their way, and China is waiting in the back to see how it goes.
Europe needs to be able to defend itself against aggressors I too thought were a thing of the past. And Europe is working together to achieve that goal.
And people who see the military as some sort of establishment that is the enemy can go fuck themselves IMO.
AND it remains against everything Turing stood for. So maybe they shouldn’t work at a place that honors his memory.
But you just go ahead and defend the childishly naive if you want to. But don’t expect the least bit of respect from me for tramping all over the memory of Turing, who was an admirable person in every way.

Yes we’ve seen the beetle in many American movies, and every hippie group with respect for themselves drive a Volkswagen Bus. (according to Hollywood) 😋

That’s completely okay with me. i get to buy these as used cars at extremely cut price.

I don’t know if you saw I posted earlier, but I don’t dislike Hyundai, I’m even considering a second hand Hyundai for exactly that reason.

The Skoda Enyaq which is also VW group and based on the VW MEB platform is very well equipped as standard. I’d say that’s similar to Hyundai.
I cant think of anything that is extra on the Enyaq, that isn’t also extra on the Hyundai.
Also the small 60 kW Enyaq is very similar in range to a 64 kW Kona, and that’s despite it’s 400 kg heavier.
I bet there are many ways to compare, but the VW drive train is very efficient, so it generally manages to match Hyundai despite being heavier.
But you need to compare similar cars, you can’t compare Sport Sedan to SUV, and expect the SUV to be equally efficient at Autobahn speed.

Go test drive a VW id.3 from 2022, I did, it’s a 3 year old car and everything is creaking

That’s anecdotal, but I agree it shouldn’t do that. Maybe it has been driven frequently on bad roads?
Last place I lived, we had a 1km dirt road to our house, that takes a toll.

No I was using Mitsubishi for many years, but unfortunately their quality declined.
Now I drive an old Opel, but currently I wouldn’t buy anything from Stelantis.

That schematic is basically worthless, first it’s “per car”, with no mention of average age or mileage.
Mercedes is no doubt among the absolute most reliable cars you can get, most Taxi drivers here use Mercedes for that reason.
But Mercedes also on average drive longer than most other cars, because people who drive a lot tend to prefer Mercedes more.
VW only ranking a couple places above Chrysler is laughable. There is no way that can be right.
Also Audi ranking below VW is ridiculous. Audi is to VW somewhat what Lexus is to Toyota.
Something is definitely off with that chart.

But I do not deny that Hyundai may have improved enough to be as good or maybe even better than VW, What I questioned was how they could have that reputation already few years after they clearly sucked on quality. Being reasonably good now, is exactly as expected though. Because when they were bad over a decade ago, they were so bad there are probably very few left on the roads. It was not just something that needed to be fixed bad, it was very much also end of life for the vehicle bad.

I skimmed the article to find the methodology behind the numbers, but couldn’t find it.

The study, now in its 35th year,

That indicates my previous point, they don’t account for age, it’s easy to stay “average” if your cars are scrapped after a few years. It also explains the poor position of Mercedes.
Here for instance Volvo has a longer life span on average than Toyota. Toyota are good cars, but they are generally not built to last as long as Audi or Mercedes.
I bet you don’t see as many 30+ year old Toyota as you do Mercedes.

Regarding reliability it’s weird Hyundai already has such a good reputation for reliability, because it’s not many years ago that Hyundai was pretty poor quality. Like for instance the Hyundai Sonata was really awful with rust. And the way the car was built was outdated.
So just a few years ago, there was no comparison that VW and Toyota were vastly superior quality to Hyundai.
I know they are better today,but still I must admit I’m surprised if they are really better than VW?
For instance the Hyundai Kona 64 had a total recall on the batteries. That’s an enormous issue to have had.

And for some reason, you search turned up a result that isn’t representative, maybe you should be more careful with your searches?

OK, but still USA is just 1 of the 3 biggest markets in the world, and the one where VW is doing worst.
All three brands are very reliable, so i bet the margin in that regard isn’t big between them.
On a global scale VW remains ahead of Hyundai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_manufacturers_by_production

Are you really claiming to be unaware of the shitshow that is USA?
Why not look at a page like this for example?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_manufacturers_by_production

Hyundai is doing fine, but they are still below VW.
Why choose only a single of the 3 world biggest markets, and incidentally the one where VW is doing worst?

not in the US, however.

🤣🤣🤣
I wonder why that may be. but incidentally Porsche was the most profitable brand in USA before Trumps stupid tariffs, and Porsche is also VW.

USA can go fuck themselves, they are making themselves irrelevant. Hyundai is also losing profits in USA despite investments:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hyundai-motor-warns-bigger-hit-us-tariffs-after-q2-profit-fall-2025-07-24/

Hyundai will be fucked over too, it’s just a matter of time. VW decided to scale back in USA, instead of fighting the windmills.

I’m not dissing Hyundai, they make OK cars at OK prices, I might actually go for a Hyundai for my next car, but mostly because it’s cheaper, if I can find a VW or Skoda Enyaq 80 or 85 at a good price, that’s the one I want.

I just show you how easy it is to ask stupid whataboutism questions.
If you have a point, you could make it, instead of asking stupid questions.

They can stay civilian and not receive government money.
But if they have any respect for the name the Institute was called after, they would not hesitate to help defend their country.
It just shows they are by far lesser people than Turing was.

Would you shit in a policemans helmet?

I agree, but Trumps MAGA America does not, MAGA wants to fuck you over every way they can, until the rich have it all.
The likes of Trump Republicans will not be happy until average Americans are reduced to slaves to the rich.
I have stocked up on so much popcorn you probably wouldn’t believe it, to see if there will be another presidential election.
It’s insane that USA used to be the envy and a role model for much of the world, now it’s become the opposite, a warning of what not to become.

Yes UK murdered their greatest war hero, utterly destroying him and driving him to suicide by insane inhumane treatment based on superstition. But despite the awful treatment of him, he remained faithful to the system.