When we think of German cars we think of some of the greatest technology ever invented to help four-wheeled vehicles travel down the tarmac. The monstrous Mercedes McLaren SLR. The capable daily driver Porsche 911 Turbo. Audi and their incredibly fast R8 Quattro. These are just three of the outstanding cars to come out of Germany. It hasn't always been roses and podium finishes though.
Often times as we struggle to succeed, there are major missteps. Today we're going to look at 15 of those misplaced efforts that ended up not reaping the results desired. Some were excellent in many facets but just one problem doomed them. Others were complete basket cases from one bumper to the next. Perhaps we missed a major one. If we did, comment below and let us know!
15 Volkswagen Passat W8
Volkswagen has seemingly only had fits and starts when it comes to proper sports sedans and sports cars. If it has power going to the back wheels and it comes from VW it always seems to fail in spectacular fashion. The W8 was basically the most complicated way for VW to get 8 cylinders into the engine bay and it still made less than 300 horsepower. Terrible.
14 Audi Allroad
If I'm honest I love the Allroad for what it could've been. They all come with a very capable motor featuring twin turbos. They have a few major problems. First, that motor is notoriously hard to work on for reasons we'll get into shortly. Second, it has an air ride suspension that always fails spectacularly and is very expensive to replace.
13 Mercedes-Benz CLA
Oh, the CLA. What should've been the best entry-level luxury car ever ended up being so cheap that all the reactions were abysmal. Buyers were so stoked to finally have a real, beautiful Mercedes, but ended up with a very cheaply made and disappointing car that Mercedes immediately started making major changes to catch up with expectations. Pricing had to go up too.
12 Trabant
What can I say that's nice about the Trabant? It's memorable. Memorable for being so terrible that nothing fit, the two-cylinder motor could barely make it move, and the engine needed oil every time you put fuel in it. It's arguably one of the worst cars from any country ever.
11 Volkswagen Touareg
When Porsche announced they were making an SUV in partnership with VW there were two camps. People who hated Porsche for doing it and thought the Cayenne would be horrible, and those who felt that at least VW would end up with a very high-quality SUV of their own.
The exact opposite ended up being true. The original Touareg is the least reliable SUV ever made by Volkswagen with more problems than I can list in an entire article. Maybe we should do a list of the 15 biggest problems with it. Would you like that? Comment below!
10 Volkswagen CC
I had a co-worker who has personally experienced how poorly designed these cars are. The engine is designed with a constant oil leak that drips onto the water pump causing it to go bad. When it goes, the motor overheats and usually causes major problems. If it manages to survive then you'll replace the water pump but the oil leak will kill it again not long after. It's so bad that VW has faced a class-action lawsuit over the engine.
9 Audi B5 S4
I love the B5 S4. I think it's a killer car and if you can maintain it then it can crush supercars. The trouble is that maintaining it can become very, very expensive very quickly. Almost every single service on the engine, even simple ones require the motor to come out. In addition, the timing belts can be suspect and go at any time if not well-kept.
8 Audi B6 S4
Everything that was wrong with the B5 S4 got fixed with the B6. The engine no longer had a wildly unreliable timing belt as they switched to a chain. They were so confident in the chain that they put it at the back of the engine next to the firewall. Then all the chain tensioner guides started going bad. Guess what? The engine has to come out to fix it.
7 BMW 318 ti
Who wants a 3-series with less practical space and the weakest possible motor in BMWs lineup? Nobody? Oh, BMW didn't see that coming. This thing was literally intended to compete with the Honda Prelude. You know, for all the people cross-shopping those two brands. It never sold well for obvious reasons.
6 Mercedes-Benz C230
Apparently Mercedes thought that despite low sales numbers that BMW was onto something with their 318ti. I do think it's a smidge better looking but similar to the 318. It's entirely gutless and that's saying something. They took the time to supercharge this thing and it didn't help a lick. Maybe it was a cry for help.
5 R56 Mini Cooper S
I love MINIs. In fact, I've owned two. I had the R53 which is very similar to the R56 we're looking at here. The big difference is the motor. The N14 turbocharged 4-cylinder in the Cooper S uses roughly a quart of oil every 1000 miles. It costs nearly as much to maintain per year as it does to buy it.
4 Cadillac Catera
Most car people know that this Cadillac was really an Opel. What they may not know is that they're hideously unreliable. Driving one of these as your only mode of transportation was like gambling with your plans each day because they regularly left their owners stranded.
3 Mercedes A-Class
I love that they positioned this car in one of the most picturesque settings possible. It's officially the most excitement ever experienced by an A-Class driver. Much like the CLA mentioned above, this Mercedes was that only in name. Interior quality, driving quality, status didn't add up.
2 Volkswagen Golf (MKIV)
Have you noticed a pattern from Volkswagen yet? The Golf is probably the most lauded of all the models mentioned here. However, there's no doubt that the Mark IV along with all the other cars VW made at the time were vastly unreliable. It sullied the entire brand and despite some positive steps in the right direction we've seen numerous examples of continued failings from this company that seems to lack real passion to make great reliable driving cars.
1 Mercedes C-Class (W202)
Oh, the downturn that Mercedes took with the W202 C-Class. They were a company so well known for being one of the best quality products you could possibly buy but when this came out everything was cheaper. The cost-cutters took every chance they could to nip and tuck at expenses. It ended up setting them up for the worst two decades of cars they've ever made.