Kiplinger’s List of Best Cars for Graduates is Absurd

[beerftw]

I think US-sold VWs are produced in Brazil, Mexico or Tennessee, so perhaps they aren't made to quite the high standards that the German-produced ones are. I drive a 13-year-old Golf diesel and it's never let me down. My brother drove the same Golf for 12 years with nothing more than a windscreen wiper motor going wrong. Everyone's anecdotal evidence will be different but VWs rock!

all vw sold in the us excluding an extreme few are made in mexico or brazil or the us.the us made ones are fairly reliable,as are the german made ones.

the mexican made ones however fall apart as they roll off the lot,sad because dodge has alot of their trucks made in mexico,and many of them go 300k+ without problems.my guess is that mexicans dont understand german engineering,or how to manufacture like the germans do,whereas americans are more adept at producing such machines.

 

[molten_dragon]

But they break down a hell of a lot less often than other makes of car. A Jetta would be a great choice.

Not really, no. Volkswagen reliability is average at best. You'd be much better off with a Honda or Toyota.

 

[beerftw]

:lol: Mine never stayed running long enough to abuse. It's why I got tired of monkeying around with it. I will say that when I had it, I was young and poor, and all my friends were young and poor. I was the only one with a car, and we all piled up in it to go riding around. Many times, I'd coast home on fumes, moving the gear shift into N when we'd hit the top of a hill, so we could coast and save gas. Only once - once - did I get confused and go from N to R. The car died. :lol: It started back up no problem, though. Boy that sucker was cold-natured.

all old dodges were cold blooded.they tend to take forever to warm up before driving,though they produce better hp per cid than for or chevy on average,even though their suspensions were terrible.the 440 however was known as almost indestructable,as their main cause of death was torquing themselves to death(yes they produced to much torque for its own stock bottom end)but they were well known for taking most abuse and surving high mileage,even more than the chrysler smallblocks,which were known as the ak-47's of the car world.

btw im surprised you went from drive to reverse on a 727 torqueflite transmission,most ive know who did that sent the low reverse spragg flying through the back of the case.

 

[Superfly]

all old dodges were cold blooded.they tend to take forever to warm up before driving,though they produce better hp per cid than for or chevy on average,even though their suspensions were terrible.the 440 however was known as almost indestructable,as their main cause of death was torquing themselves to death(yes they produced to much torque for its own stock bottom end)but they were well known for taking most abuse and surving high mileage,even more than the chrysler smallblocks,which were known as the ak-47's of the car world.

btw im surprised you went from drive to reverse on a 727 torqueflite transmission,most ive know who did that sent the low reverse spragg flying through the back of the case.

I don't know :lol: . All I know is we were driving, and I thought I was in D and was going to move up to N, and instead I moved from N up to R. I heard this loud CLANG and the car died and stopped abruptly. Everybody in the car looked at me like, "Oh **** - what'd you do?" I was afraid to try to crank it back up, but it cranked up OK and we made it home without running out of gas, or without me leaving the transmission at the top of that hill.