I have played in that world a bit when I was younger, and I pretty much avoid them now. US market ones are poorly built and fall apart quickly.
Once again, I could not agree with you more.
Now double that WRT the turbo’d ones. (yeah, that’ll start another fight, I reckon)
I once owned a German-built Opel. A 1900 sedan(think they called it an Ascona over in the Fatherland) Absolutely the Best Damn Car I have ever owned! Had FI, rear-wheel-drive, great fun on a mountain road. Couldn’t kill it with a cannon-and you couldn’t give ‘em away. Ask most any other owner, they were the biggest POS ever made. But not this one. Go figure.
Fantastic in every way until the day the neglected tranny lube ran comepletely out, locked up in a curve, slid into the path of a Mercedes and we hit head on. I walked away but I still miss that car.