Love German cars...but I voted Japan for quality/reliability over pure engineering.

I see a lot of people say Germany due to engineering over Japan's reliabilty. I wouldn't consider "cutting edge" technology that fails in a year or two to be quality engineering (specifically Mercedes-Benz and Audi). In my opinion, highly efficient and highly reliable motors are the pinnacle of engineering.

If Sennheiser released the HD700 and it sounded out of this world, but it was $2000, and blew drivers every 3 years, would you consider that good engineering?

Russians produced this car somewhere in 1950-70s and they still around. This was the only car that ever won some award for USSR, I believe in France car show 30 years ago. This is basically an tank which drives very smooth, I LOVE THIS CAR


And the cars that they produce these days are simply **** on wheels.

USA! (I voted for japan. I own a subaru, and wouldn't take any other car if it was given to me. I go on roadtrips in it, sleep in it, make love in it, fly down the california coast in it, smile, cry, it takes me everywhere and never asks why)

by the way, I really dont like german cars. I think they are really high brow, elitist, wastes of money. i guarantee that if you take any german car, there is another car made somewhere else that performs as well/better for less money.

And their styling is horrendous. Really safe, IMO. Guaranteed not to offend anyone. Except for me of course

mechanically the Germans
ascetically the Italians
electronically the Japaneses
safely the Swedes
cheaply the Americans
for a specific application the British.

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Everyone who wants to talk about who makes what better should go here (thanks google)
Car Forums - Who owns who? - Car Forum Archives

here is the gist (it's mostly correct)
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Companies still innovate and design in all reliability, quality, and durability.

I'd break down car engineering into four major categories. Objective performance, subjective feel, reliability, and producibility.

Objective performance in production cars is a wash. American, Japanese, and German cars are very competitive at almost every level.

In subjective feel, the Germans win out. Stuff just feels right, with a sharper feel and better balance than their competitors. The Japanese are a bit behind at second. Response numbness and inflexible suspensions particular weaknesses. Americans are far behind both.

For reliability, the Japanese are tops. America's second and improving, while the Germans come in third and seem to be stagnant. There's really not a huge objective difference in this category. Every manufacturer has their stinkers, though some don't have bright spots.

As for producibility, Japan comes out on top again. Production times are consistently the shortest. America comes in second with production times barely behind Japan. Germany is just plain bad at this thanks to the labor environment and overly complex engineering.

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List is kind of old though. Chrysler and associated brands are now the property of Cerberus. Ford's been divesting brands too.

Either way, ownership isn't a good proxy for country of engineering. Opel/Vauxhall and Holden have their own engineering assets, GM just owns them and occasionally borrows models. GMs and Subarus don't have much in common engineering wise, though there is some technology exchange and rebadging. Renault and Nissan's partnership didn't have much effect on the technology bases of either company. Mazda and Ford are more intertwined than the rest of the companies I've mentioned, but aside from some platform sharing, Mazda's Japanese engineers still do most of the engineering on their cars.

I have to say the worst put together, ill-fitting pile of dog doo I ever sat in was Fords Mustangs (2 of them, new models). The most unreliable heap was a Skoda I owned until the front-right completely collapse and fell off. It blew hoses and belts regularly. I had a Rover SD1 with two gears missing. A Chevy that ate alternators and now own a Honda, luckily no failures yet.

Here some nice link, just check this out

BMW 6-series skinned to look like Volga GAZ-21

It depends for what purpose. For luxury, Germany. If you're not into luxury, that completely redefines the question.

My vote goes to Germany, without any hesitation.

I think MARVIN nails the break down. I've owned a VW Bus which was easy to repair myself but always needed repair. Many other Ger cars cost allot when needing repair compared to Japanese. I loved the old split windows from the 60's.

I currently have a Toyota because of fuel eco for minivan and comfort while still rated highly in many other competitive categories. What really turned my head toward Toyota while then driving a Dodge was meeting the huge membered Toyota 200k Club at a car show. I invested in a new Sienna and plan to keep it for the next 20 yrs at least.

Ironically, Toyota has plants in Canada and US, i.e. made by Canadians/Americans, not Japanese. Actually, I think Toyota has a Camry/Sienna plant around Knoxville CARDUDE. Mine was made in Winnipeg, although I hope not on a Mon.

However, as sexy as Italian sports cars are I always did like the "pile of dog doo" '69 Fastback.

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When a Japanese or American car rolls off the production line, it's pretty much perfect and ready to be shipped to the dealership. With many German cars, this isn't true. When the cars roll off the line, they have to be set aside and hand tweaked & tightened up, and even after that's done they often have more defects per car than their American & Japanese counterparts. The need for time consuming human labour is why German cars are so bloody expensive.