Is the German engineering tag worth it?

Over the years, Germany has excelled in automobile engineering and as such marketed their auto brands with the tag, “German engineering” which tag, fanatics have bought into. But is that tag still relevant?

Mustafa: Is German still valid today? For the purpose of this discussion, let’s look at Audi, Mercedes, BMW and VW. If you look at those brands for instance Mercedes in the 1990s these cars were built like tanks. After 2000, they sort of lost it. Where am I coming from? You can go to Spear Motors and buy a new Mercedes. Jude, you were at the launch of the new S-Class, beautiful car, it works like charm. But in five years, things may start failing in that car. Where is the German engineering in that? Things fail quite a lot in comparison to other brands. You could argue that people don’t maintain them like they should.

Paul: Which sort of things fail?

Mustafa: Electronics, simple things.

Jude: I think he is trying to say that German engineering only works when the car is new but after it has been used for some time, that is the end of the story.

Mustafa: That is the end of the story. Just like you construct a building, I would expect that if something is made well, it should last even when it is abused. But if I buy a car and then I am supposed to treat it like a baby for 10 years, I think it is not right.

Paul: You have made a point that I should react to and that is abuse, that is the key word. To be fair, I think apart from tanks, bulldozers and caterpillars, those are the vehicles that are meant to be abused because the nature of their work is aggressive. Ordinarily, cars are not supposed to be abused but meant to be looked after well. They should be maintained, but we should also recognise that if the car is a used five or 10 years, quite a number of parts are prone to fail. The cars that were built two or three decades ago, had more metal in them than today’s cars that have lots of plastics. They also had more mechanical than electronic features. You had mechanical window winding systems, almost everything was mechanical. Overtime, because of the urge of convenience and comfort, things have gone electronic. Everything is about touching buttons. The buttons are made of plastic and it wears out, so there is a little price to pay. You have to replace these things because they won’t last forever. Unless Mustafa, you want us to go back 20 years ago to mechanical things, if you want comfort we have to go plastics and plastics don’t last forever! If you look at today’s Toyotas, they as well have glitches, so this is not purely a German problem per se. but the Germans having led and built things that last which I think they still do, they should not take the blame.

Mustafa: You cannot deny the German prowess when it comes to engineering per se because they engineer their cars to be perfect and you drive them and feel good. But when you pay a lot of money for such cars you want them to last. Today, this is not valid. You mentioned less metal and more plastics today but that begs the question, does the statement-German engineering still hold?

Jude: Let’s take an example of this big E-Class that was engineered like it will never break down. The W124, I think Mustafa is asking why aren’t they making Mercedes Benzes like that anymore or is German engineering just a tagline.

Paul: I will give you an example, in the older Mercedes Benzes you had suspensions that were really mechanical but today you have suspension systems that are airmatic, you have suspensions that are electronic, you have dumping systems that you can adjust electronically, now these are prone to fail say after five years.

Mustafa: Now that is my issue. If you are going to give me that tag of German engineering, things should not fail.

Paul: Look at the market, the economics, taste, market demand from consumers, demand has shifted to electronics and plastics. There is a price to pay for this. The price is that you are not going to have cars that will last forever. It doesn’t mean that German engineering doesn’t work, in fact the prowess has gone up. Car technology is now driven by safety, comfort and performance features and many others, features such as airbags, systems that and tell whether or not there is a child seated on the cushion after the system has felt the weight(laughter).

Mustafa: Today, if I bought the latest S-Class and I also bought a Ford Fusion and gave them to Paul, these are your daily drivers, I have given you the Mercedes for a year and I am giving you the Fusion for a year, what do you think will happen in terms of maintenance or what are the chances of something failing in both cars? With a high probability, I think something will happen to the Mercedes!

Jude: Why? Do you have beef with Mercedes?

Mustafa: I don’t have any beef. The thing is people who buy these cars buy them with warranty, they don’t care about those things that keep failing, because when he hears a rattle he rushes to the dealer and says fix this. When a car is under warranty, you are quite okay.

Jude: And outside warranty?

Mustafa: Outside warranty is when us mere mortals can acquire this car (laughter). That is when you notice these failures. Why is this Mercedes or BMW failing, I don’t expect them to fail! Let me give an example, when the 7Series came out in 2002, it had a crazy i-drive that had many glitches, this is something coming from BMW. This something they also realised and had to fix overtime with updates among other things. But I shouldn’t expect such a thing from a German manufacturer.

Paul: For argument’s sake, let’s turn this around, has Toyota got such stories? I think this is not only a German engineering problem but a global engineering problem. I understand your frustration of the tradition that German engineering never fails. But traditionally, Toyota also never had glitches, so would Ford. In fact Ford’s catchphrase was built tough built to last. The consumers’ demands, the changing trends, now production has been skewed towards electronics and plastics. The technology that is used today will fail because sometime market pressure forces manufacturers to release technology before it has properly tested. Before the laboratories, before it has been through processes of prototypes and that is a challenge across the board be it Toyota, Chrysler, Mercedes name it.

Mustafa: That is true, but …

Paul: I too could be as frustrated with Toyotas small failures, the brakes that won’t work or the accelerator systems that accelerate by themselves. That is one aspect of modern technology having a fair share of challenges. So we shouldn’t use this as a basis to question German technology. Because of their systems in improving safety, comfort etc, I think they are better than they were yesterday.

Mustafa: Ofcourse there has been improvement but that begs the question does it still hold (the tagline).

Jude: It is a tag that has worked well for them for decades.

Mustafa: Is it still valid, or valid with certain reservations.

Jude: But you cannot take away the tag from them. I don’t even know who initiated it whether it was Mercedes, BMW or VW. But today, I was reading a statement from Opel, which we also forgot is a German car firm and they were praising themselves on how they have performed well in the market and somewhere in one of the paragraphs, those words German Engineering, were thrown in!

Mustafa: Yeah, if you read other reviews about German cars, it is okay to use it. But for me, if you put it out there as a selling line, I will take it with a pinch of salt. I won’t take it wholeheartedly like many other people would. Every owner of a German car always has a story around the maintenance and something failing. This is something you cannot deny.
Paul: Even the owners of Japan cars also always have something to say. And the manufacturers still acknowledge German engineering. Most of them use injector pumps that are made in Germany. Those that are not using Densol will use wither Bosch or something else from Germany. The best fuel pumps come from Germany.

Mustafa: Let me tell you something interesting, there is someone I know who has a Hyundai but with the majority or parts being from Bosch, which is quite excellent. No one takes it away from them. But there are some stories that are forgettable. Why a story about German cars is prominent is because of that tagline of German engineering.

Paul: The prowess of German engineering dates back as far as the Second World War and it is still as strong. Those scientists that were taken by the Russians and Americans, that story of German technology is still valid.

Mustafa: I was reading a story about how the British car industry has totally gone down the drain because the Germans were producing cars that were reliable and efficient such as the 1970s and 198-s VWs which is quite good. Now, if you tell me that this car is made by Germans, do I take it that it is perfect?

Jude: No, it doesn’t mean that German cars are not prone to failure and that they are from Heaven.

Mustafa: That is what some people believe that they are from heaven. In the 1990s I would have believed that. A car like the W120, such cars were like tanks.

Paul: We shouldn’t be discussing German technology but the use of electronics and plastics.

Jude: Let’s help people out there, let’s not look into tags. These days VW has come up with so many innovations but when some car fans look at the price, they often question whether it is still the people’s car as the tagline suggested at the beginning. That is how VW marketed itself, the people’s car, ordinary people that is. The tagline is no longer working.