I think Germany did it to themselves. Some years ago they cheated on the emissions tests for their diesel engines and got caught, and quality has gone down to the point where “German Engineering” is no longer a valid boast. I owned to mid-range Mercedes and both had “issues”. Both had times when the main screen would blank out - even when the backup camera was supposed to be on - they claimed it was my imagination. My new Toyota did the same and they came out with 2 recalls to fix it.
My CLA AMG (fast as heck and held the road like it was on rails - but the suspension was so hard that running over a ruler in the road would give you a “Bang!”, had the driver side blind spot warning stop working on the sideview mirror. I was told that the diagnostics showed a bad sensor - but my car didn’t have that sensor - so their programmers suck. Then My GLC 300 was on cruise control on a trip and going up a steep hill. traffic ahead was sow, but the left lane was clear so I pulled out and tried to accelerate - it didn’t drop a gear like it should have and the engine lugged, then started running real rough. Limped to a dealership and they said a cylinder “misfired” which automatically turned it off. Turning it off and then back on again was supposed to fix it, but it didn’t so they had to play with the computer.
The “Krauts’ did it to themsleves.
SCREEN BLANKING OUT is a common problem, not just with Mercedes. GM, FORD, TOYOTA and others have all had the same problem.
It’s apparently the TOUCHSCREENS themselves can’t take the heat and vibration of normal everyday driving.
Designers love them because they can eliminate knobs and switches and dashboards can be reduced to one component and a bunch of cables. And assembly line installation is fast and easy.
A certain car I was looking to buy recently had a screen that went all the way from one side of the dash to the other with no mechanical controls at all.
They will have to come up with a more heavy duty touchscreen to solve this problem, but that makes them more expensive................
In practice, that means to do most maintenance and repair jobs right requires parts and sometimes even tools that you have to buy from the manufacturer. (Some VW models, back when I was a VW owner, even required proprietary tools just to do an oil change correctly !! ... good luck taking that car to Jiffy Lube.)
The result is that you either have to take the car to the dealership for service, or to a shop that specializes in, e.g., German cars (of which there aren't many) ... or you have to learn to do it yourself, and buy the appropriate tools. I mentioned to a tech at a German-car repair shop once that I did a lot of work on my own car and found it rather difficult and tricky. "Yeah," he said, "we call that 'Hitler's revenge'!"
This is not only true for VW. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are reportedly even worse.
Disclaimer: I owned VW diesels for 26 years. Fun and economical cars to drive, but with a high appetite for expensive maintenance.