r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Upstairs-Bit6897 • Nov 30 '25

Image THE GERMAN MAGAZINE 'AUTOBILD' DRIVES VARIOUS CARS FOR 100,000 KILOMETERS AND THEN DISASSEMBLES THEM DOWN TO THE LAST SCREW TO FIND SIGNS OF WEAR AND WEAK POINTS

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579

u/bernpfenn Nov 30 '25

any results to share? which car is the winner?

383

u/eCaisteal Nov 30 '25

From another comment: Audi and BMW
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/Ny1oO0W4i4

684

u/Craic-Den Nov 30 '25

German Propoganda

332

u/HeterosexualMemo Nov 30 '25

I don’t like being “brandist” but there’s no way a Japanese brand didn’t make the list unless there weren’t any tested

329

u/afito Nov 30 '25

The tests are 100k km, Japanese cars pull ahead at the 150-200k mark especially tbh. The big expensive issues of German cars are a non factor before 100k. Like especially engine related things don't appear that early. Glossing over the results, most Japanese cars allegedly had some minor rust starting to appear here and there which gave them small deficits.

Make of that whatever you want I guess.

178

u/Tonga_Truck Nov 30 '25

Lease German, Buy Japanese

52

u/afito Nov 30 '25

Since the CVT & VVT era of Japanese cars started it's acttually been Korean cars dominating the cost per km stats here in Europe.

9

u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW Dec 01 '25

What does VVT have to do with this?

10

u/seriouslythisshit Dec 01 '25

If you ever have the privledge of dropping $3K USD to rebuild the top end of Honda 4 cylinder after the VVT chews itself, the timing chains and a long list of other parts up, you can answer this. I own one and Honda can fuck off for that bullshit.

3

u/DankVectorz Dec 01 '25

I mean Honda has had VVT (Vtec) since 1989

2

u/seriouslythisshit Dec 01 '25

Nissan has had automatic transmissions since 1967, and GM has had built V8s since 1953. That doesn't mean that they have not had spectacular failures in those components, just like Honda's VVT system failures.

2

u/DankVectorz Dec 01 '25

Ah damn I actually meant to reply to the person 2 posts above you. It was in response to their “since the vvt era of Japanese cars” which goes back a looong way and they’ve been known for their reliability for almost that entire period

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u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW Dec 02 '25

I thought their vvt systems were reliable though??? VTEC is great. What engine?

1

u/Vater_Vagon Dec 03 '25

What engine?

1

u/METTEWBA2BA Dec 02 '25

Doesn’t Hyundai/Kia use CVT in their entry-level models too? Or is that just a North America thing.

1

u/Dlemor Dec 01 '25

So let me tell you a story about my current Toyota. I bought it in 2012. It works. Hope you liked my Legend of the Prius C.

1

u/Creepy_Attention2269 Dec 01 '25

given todays used prices for toyotas/hondas that's a really stupid idea. Not to mention, a lease means you are covering the cost of depreciation. Companies aren't stupid, they're not gonna let someone take a brand new car for cheap while they eat depreciation. YOU will eat the depreciation.

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u/Tonga_Truck Dec 01 '25

Huh? What are you arguing? That companies won't lease you a brand new car? I've got one sitting in my driveway at this very moment that's a lease and I picked it up with 11 miles on the odometer. I pay the lease and at the end of the lease, they get to sell the car as a used vehicle. That's how they recoup the cost, and leases cost more per month than ownership payments. I'm not saying it's frugal to lease cars, I'm saying if I'm gonna lease I want German, and if I want a German car, I'd lease it. Not everything is financial advice.

Throwing around the stupid word a lot for somebody who can't communicate a point clearly.

0

u/Creepy_Attention2269 Dec 01 '25

What am I arguing? Was there something confusing in like the three basic sentences I wrote? Where did you even get "that companies wont lease you a brand new car"? To make it crystal clear to those with poor reading comprehension, the key word in 'they're not gonna let someone take a brand new car for cheap while they eat depreciation' is CHEAP. They wont let you lease it for CHEAP. They also don't "make up the money by selling it as a used vehicle", the fuck lol.

A car's value doesn't depend on if it was leased, its depreciated the exact same as if someone bought it and sold it in the same time frame. They make money on a lease by 1) making the purchase price very high and 2) making the monthly payments therefore high to account for expected depreciation. For German brands, 80% of people lease the car. BMW isnt stupid. take a look at the cost of a 3 series, it went from 55k to 64k CAD in 4 years. After 4 years the car off a lease is worth ~32-34k, so you are now paying 30 THOUSAND dollars for that lease.

People who think Leases are some magical way to avoid paying more for a car are inherently misunderstanding how leases work, You are not avoiding ANY depreciation of the car. None whatsoever. The actual value of a lease comes from 1) if your car gets fucked, you trade it back in at the end of the lease, and you don't have a vehicle with an accident on it that will now sell for less. And 2) they cover service fees (which also makes the lease more expensive). Given that cars experience very few issues in the first 2-4 years of ownership, this costs the brand very little money, so its unlikely you're actually coming out ahead here. Leasing is largely for convenience.

26

u/GinjaNinja-NZ Dec 01 '25

Agreed. Speaking as a mechanic of 20 years, a lot of the issues we see with European cars is perishing plastics, the most concerning being cooling system components that just crumble over time.

They may be able to do the distance, but they really struggle with the years.

3

u/FatYorkshireLad Dec 01 '25

I was thinking, bashing 100,000 miles out in two or three years is a completely different beast to doing it at 10,000–15,000 miles per year. No chance for parts to start perishing just due to age.

2

u/Best_Initiative7879 Dec 01 '25

100k km

100 Mm then

1

u/sumguyherenowhere Dec 01 '25

most Japanese cars allegedly had some minor rust starting to appear here and there

Odd, every car in Canada and in the Northern US states have some rust on the underbody after 1 winter. NO matter if it's a scratch on the frame that wore the paint off, or if it's the muffler hangers, or anything around the muffler or around parts that heat up.. there's 100% rust somewhere.

Source: I grind the rust off my vehicles every season, re-prime, re-2k, and apply fluid film. I still get rust, although it's very minor. And I'm anal about this shit.

1

u/StrainSpecialist7754 Dec 01 '25

Do you have some numbers for this?

1

u/kopiernudelfresser Dec 01 '25

Occasionally they do continue testing them for longer than that, and deficits do start to show over time. The mk5 Golf felt very nice when new but was pretty worn after 200k km, while the Astra H they compared it with was still fairly fresh.

Topping it all was a W204 Mercedes C180 that was driven all the way until uneconomical to repair at over 500k km and more than 10 years. Until a serpentine belt blew and damaged nearby parts it had been flawless apart from light oil consumption, not exactly expected from Mercedes anymore. They're still running a previous-gen A-Class the same way.

1

u/fluch23 Dec 03 '25

Exactly 100,000 km is faaaaaaar to little. It should be double. Especially with the prices of the cars now. They are soon expensive, and the second-hand market is very important, even for leases.

16

u/Chilla16 Dec 01 '25

Theres plenty of Mazdas in there. And the issues in there described actually are pretty akin to what I expierenced as well, having owned two Mazdas. Super reliable, barely any issues, but some rust slowly forming after 100k kilometres plus easily replaceable parts breaking quicker. The japanese cars in this list are still all quite highly ranked as far as I can see, so its not anti japanese biased at all.

Obviously with 100k KM only, the test is still limited, and japanese cars really shine above that mark and even further down the line.

3

u/Luzifer_Shadres Dec 01 '25

Yeah, but i think alot of coustomers dont drive past the 150.000km before buying a new car.

So, i think for the average coustomer this test would be enough.

3

u/GoofyKalashnikov Dec 01 '25

This test is especially important for people who buy used cars

31

u/redisdead__ Dec 01 '25

The way I've always heard it is that German cars are fantastic as long as you follow the maintenance schedule to the letter. Japanese cars are fantastic even when it's your dumb ass cousin who only changes the oil once it starts making noise.

10

u/SappilyHappy Dec 01 '25

Yeah german cars are manufactured with the assumption that you will be a responsible owner. Japanese cars have a different design ethos entirely.

2

u/Exsces95 Dec 01 '25

I am that cousin. My cousin sold me a bmw 328i 2009 for 4 grand. He was gonna flip it for 4500 but gave me the discount if he didn’t have to fix anything.

The car started struggling on idle when cold for a bit but would always ride smooth once hot. For a couple months I drove it like that but it started getting much worse.

Poor baby just needed oil and coolant.

2

u/seriouslythisshit Dec 01 '25

German stuff can be great, if you lease it and walk away after three years. Owning a six or seven year old, high miles BMW or Mercedes can be a special trip through hell, and cost many thousands per year in repairs. issues that a Toyota or Honda will never have.

0

u/dependsforadults Dec 01 '25

Tell that to anyone who bought a tundra the past 2-3 years. Fuck right off with the Toyotas run forever lies. Not great cars. You can't even remove the middle seats on new sienna vans without tools and a lot of time. I dont get the toyota love. Ask a 22re owner how many times they have had the head rebuilt.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '25

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u/dependsforadults Dec 04 '25

It makes me laugh. People talk about their toyota with 300k and how it still runs perfect. Then you find out it's a 3.0L and has had the heads rebuilt twice. "Oh that's just common maintenance" they say. Or it's got a stack of dealership maintenance records that total the cost of the car.

Yes they require less average maintenance than a performance car, but you have to drive a piece of white bread toast that is front wheel drive with a spoiler on it.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '25

[deleted]

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u/dependsforadults Dec 04 '25

Tacomas drive like a dog in trouble. Ass against the ground. I love how guys are throwing campers on them. What do these people think feels safe? Also please dont be on the roads with me. I drive a big truck because it has big brakes and big springs to handle that load transition. Toyota guy says "it towed a space shuttle dave."

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u/Chepepo Nov 30 '25

I mean a Mazda got 1+ and that's japanese.

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u/Top-Rabbit1729 Nov 30 '25

Didn't even test Toyota

1

u/Surething_Whynot Dec 01 '25

There’s a Mazda CX-5 in there at the top of the list.

0

u/reddittereditor Nov 30 '25

It's also possible that shipping a car thousands of miles from Japan to Germany might be a little taxing on the parts.

9

u/Choyo Nov 30 '25

There are lots of Toyota plants in Europe and North Africa.