WHICH German Car Company Do YOU Think Is Making Vehicles That Will Stand The Test Of Time AND Be Trouble Free?

For me :
Porsche
BMWX
Mercedes

None.... They're insanely expensive to fix. My 5 Mercedes were lovely cars but repairs were needed, Forget it. One additional reason for Cadillac to get it right on all accounts!!

Unless you don't start them or drive them anywhere, cars are not trouble free. BTW, I'm a 4x BMW owner, and trying another brand.

BTW, when you buy a German car, that "legendary German engineering" doesn't translate into lack of repairs. BMW gives you their legendary ride. Porsche gives you race car heritage. Mercedes give you presence. Audi gives you techie bits. VW gives you a name-plaque on your seat in the service department ;-)

I'd have to put trust equally in Mercedes and BMW. I see so many older models from both makers comfortably roaming the streets and highways. Regardless of repairs or maintenance, they are both build on incredibly solid structures. Honestly, as much as I've absolutely grown to love my Audi, I just don't feel like the bones of the car would hold up as long as so many of the older Benz and Bimmers I've seen.

In general I thnk all the German manufacturers are making pretty good quality vehicles right now. Of course everyone has their unique experiences. Also the question is not as straight forward as it may sound. People residing in Germany (or Europe in general) put their cars through a different set of daily stresses than we do in the US. Having spent extensive time in Europe I see the cars here stressed much harder each day from cobblestone streets to autobahn trips. In these conditions the German cars (in general again) seem to hold up better than those from other parts of the world. In the US where our cars are not so highly stressed the answer seems different in that most say Japanese are the best. But to your question I would say BMW/Mercedes/Porsche followed by Audi/VW.

I seriously couldn't imagine my current car (Audi) having to face cobblestone streets on a daily basis. Pieces of the interior would probably start falling to the floor. I don't exaggerate. It's only 3 years old and all of these various squeaks and rattles started happening almost from the day I took the car home. Thank goodness it has an amazing sound system (which, btw, caused unbearable vibrations throughout the cabin until I strategically placed buffer material throughout, something the service guys couldn't figure out after keeping the car for 8 hours).

I've been living in the Netherlands for almost a year now.

While I agree about the coblestone roads beating the trash out of cars, I think you're way off on the durability. For starters, there is little room to even speed in this place. Everything is low speed around here. Secondly, they alternate between driving, biking and riding the train. I don't care what make it is, in less than a year, that car is squeaking and rattling. Cars are constantly in the shop for shocks and struts when people can afford it.

In Newfoundland, we had to replace shocks once a year because even the highwyas were sh*t, and it didn't matter if it was German or not.

I've had an Audi A6, several Volkswagens, two BMWs and 2 Porsche's.

The Porsche's have by far the best quality, both in initial fit and finish and long term durability. The Audi had great fit and finish and fell apart as soon as the warranty was up. Far more expensive to maintain than the Porsche's! The Volkswagens were similar to the Audi but fell apart sooner. The BMW was second best to the Porsche but I'd say the suspension falls apart in New England winters.

The cheapest cars I ever had to buy and maintain were ironically Ford Taurus's. They were cheap to buy and maintain and I had 3 of them go to 200k. I've checked out the Japanese cars because of their perceived reliability but they were so dull to drive I couldn't make myself buy them.

Porsche.

001

Porsche
Mercedes
BMW
Audi
Opel
VW

Traditionally it has always been Mercedes, but they have released some clunkers from 1998-2006 and some of those cars are already in the junk yard. So yeah Porsche and Mercedes.....then BMW. Audis don't last worth a damn and were disposable cars until like 10 mins ago.

13 A6 3.0 18k miles no problems... 10 A3 TDI 98k miles no problems... up in the air about getting rid of the A3 and picking up the 16 A7, but the A3 isn't showing any signs of problems right now. Its a great road car as well! However I take my cars to the dealership for all services, which might make a difference.

Porsche

the porsche will probably hold up best but ONLY because if you go on ebay, or just see a whole bunch of used ones they all have low miles. that makes me feel they arent being driven enough to take the abuse the other german brands do.