Why are German cars such as BMWs/VW/Audi/Mercedes-Benz seen to be unreliable? I see lots for sale with very high mileage.?

They tend to have specific design problems that eventually get fixed in later models... or not. The high rate of VW throttle body problems in the gasoline models of roughly a decade ago come to mind, and the notorious dual mass flywheel that added 50% to the cost of a clutch replacement or required a second clutch job a few years later if it is overlooked was a VW et al exclusive. (Are they still making those? The 1997-2005 1.8L TDi engines had horrific sludge problems and in the same era the variable vane diesel turbos tended to carbon up with bad results if the car was not zoomed around regularly enough. Since VW never publicly addresses their design problems we never know when to stop looking down on specific lines of vehicles.) Their use of Pentosin G series coolants is just a booby trap; the coolants are fine but uncommon and mandatory. Use of substitutes can doom a VW/Porsche/Audi to an early death, as can mixing the proper coolants with anything else. There have been persistent but unsubstantiated rumors about Dexcool being incompatible, but it is well established that mixing the G-series with anything else in certain proportions can (and often does) cause the coolant to gel, leading to engine destruction before the driver knows what is going on. Finally, the outrageous diesel emissions cheating scandal has grievously damaged the prestige of the brand.

Many, probably most, VW/Porsche/Audi owners will not have to deal with any of these design snafus. Although every car in those models will be affected, not all of them will actually bite their owners. Honda went through a phase of terrible design problems from 1998-2005 automatic transmission failures to 2006 Civic blocks cracking and 2007 Accords wearing out rear brakes almost ten times as fast as normal. As long as not *everybody* knows about the flaws in the shiny new car they are being wooed to buy addressing the problem is not a priority.

BMWs have earned their reputation, with quirky designs that really don't work all that well all the time and outrageous repair costs. The difference is that is nothing new; it was like that when Richard Nixon was the US President and it is still that way. Mercedes is just plain expensive to maintain and repair, with few skeletons in its closet. Both BMW and Mercedes can give a long service life (particularly Mercedes) but that is not without expense.

Not that they are unreliable they are just hard to fix and very expensive to fix.

Car like BMW and Mercedes suffer from what is commonly called "over engineering". They have very sophisticated internal systems that break down often and cost a fortune to repair. Not that they break down more than a Ford. That is why high mileage European luxury cars have such low resale value. Nobody want to pay the price to repair them when they do break.

German automobiles are not necessarily considered unreliable. However, the repair and maintenance costs are indeed well above industry average.

Yes but they have had an incredible amount of money spent on them to get there

Hi so that is the issue high mileage means the makers dealer wants rid of these as they are a liability.

I don't believe the cars are "unreliable". It's just that they are expensive to maintain, so less than conscientious owners tend to scrimp on maintenance which leads to problems. Spare parts are expensive because they have to be shipped from Germany, and many American mechanics haven't had the training or experience to work on the foreign made cars. It cost nearly $1000 for the dealer to do a 6000 mile service on my BMW motorcycle, so I bought a factory maintenance/repair manual and did the work myself.

They just require more maintenance then Asian and American cars. Maintaining them is expensive and it's hard to find a good European mechanic unless you go to the dealer. Parts are more expensive too.

I used to drive 3 to 5 hundred miles per day over a few years. You can learn to spot the problem cars by the ones you see on the side of the roadway out in nowhere. A few German cars, yes, no more than any other cars if you consider the density of car types in a region.

Western US, what I saw most was Ford F-150 trucks, bu hat is a very popular truck, many on the road. Dodge caravan, not so popular and a few of those had been on fire, those are actually Mitsubishi imported by Dodge. Of the German makes, VW I saw most of. Shoe on the other foot, I have see a diesel Mercedes with 1.2 million miles on it.

Friends have cars like Audi and BMW, a few in and out of shops and very expensive fixes.

My last car, an '06 Cadillac DTS, put just short of 300K miles on it, and zero problems or reliability issues, just none.Only in the shop for regular maintenance, sold in excellent used condition.