Me and my family had owned local / Japanese / Continental cars;
We had our fair experience on the reliability from each of the car maker.

The question is, are there any reliable continental car?

In search for some enlightenment, for the next fun yet reliable car (something that give pleasure yet parts won't break often)

the Mercs used to be very reliable

can't say the same today

so, maybe none of them can be considered reliable but in my experience Alfas take the prize for being unreliable and BMWs the prize for being "delicate" in the sense, sikit sikit sakit.

Conti manual car with less sensor may be less issue.

Family had Merc before, older ones
Always like to visit "doctor" during the weekend

Other than that, our experience with continentals require a lot of pampering
Loves to have new accessories everytime, new parts here and there

If there are no "reliable continentals", are there any fun, reliable and easier to own cars to recommend?

Was initially looking at Renault Megane (earlier gen) but kinda skeptical with it's reliability.
Also looking at Peugeot 208 GTI, but it might give us more reliability worriness than fun.

Any other suggestions?

i have had a merc since the W126 model (inherited from someone)
that was a tank.
had a collision with another car at 70kmh and all that was needed was bodywork and a radiator change.

graduated to a W140 which was a mistake. real potato

currently using a W203 which is mostly trouble free if you are not fussy over small issues.

If you want to drive continental and reliable (less issue), look into diesel model. Usually Diesel model got less sensor compare to petrol engine counterpart.

Biggest letdown are their local representative service center. Along with its delicate build, it is very expenseive to own one...

.

This post has been edited by Donidoni: Mar 6 2023, 12:53 AM

Most people have incorrect definition of reliability.

Reliability by engineers/scientist/mathematician is time-bound, involve confident level, and it is completely different from quality. To declare reliability, one must know the designed life-cycle of a component.

Here's some example
Product A designed to work with designed High Performance (good spec) specification for 5 years, with confident level of 0.02% escape rate
Product B designed to work with designed Slow Performance (low spec) specification for 8 years, with confident level of 0.02% escape rate
Product C designed to work with designed High Performance (good spec) specification for 3 years, with confident level of 0.02% escape rate
Product D designed to work with designed Slow Performance (low spec) specification for 20 years, with confident level of ?? escape rate (real world 30%)

Most people call B more reliable than A, in reality both are good reliability base on designed specification. People complains A is also expensive, but forgot what A enabled, eg:. A is high precision and ultra fast ABS sensor that support advance torque vectoring, while B is low sampling rate slow sensor.

C is an example of lower quality, but still goes through accelerated stress test with a proper confident level from manufacturer, still good reliability.
D is an example of low quality and low reliability. Where manufacturer skim on the testing cost. It could last 20 years, but have to try the luck.

You might ask, what's the different to the user? The component/part last shorter, result still the same. There is big different for the manufacturer.
Reliability is an issue that each factory failed to meet the metrics and actively working for a fix.
Life time issue is not a component issue itself, it is business decision of the car maker to select a even more expensive component that last longer, or continue to replace the component as the component work according to the specification.

Also one do not know if the defect is within the expected escape rate. Reliability is bathtub curve, at the manufacturing the defect rate is high and factory testing filter them out, then defect rate remains low until the designed life cycle, and the defect rate skyrocket again.

Lastly for your question, Porsche from the sport devision GT2/GT2 RS GT3/GT3 RS, GT4 are the most reliable road legal car worldwide (Japanese included) when operate at the vehicle full potential regularly. It is so far the only group of cars in completely stock setup that can be daily driven in rack track, rev to 8000rpm, 9000rpm only with regular maintenance.

Look for Robert Mitchell and Misha Charoudin from Apex. They run a GT2 RS MR as taxi on Nurburgring, doing 30,000KM a year, only regular oil change. Note: they also like the regular taxi, they don't stop the engine between customer wait, reduce start/stop wear.

Unfortunately, those cars are very expensive, but nothing beat them when comes to reliability.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 9 2021, 12:22 PM

Buy a lexus la

BMW F30 not so much problem , its cheap now for a 6 year old used F30

Appreciate the long write.
We do agree the reliability vs quality are interlink and related.

Speaking of the other black horse (Porsche), does the sister/brother car eg: Cayenne has the same reliability?
This would revolve on another aspect, which is practicality.
However, it would pretty much unfair to compare a same car but different region.
Eg: Owning Porsche in Malaysia vs Germany

End of the day, the question is still on $$$ which is hard to avoid

For Lexus, I'm working my way to it
Right now looking for sub 100k fun and reliable car
The continentals are really interesting but reliability put them off
F30 sedan is quite small for a sedan
Previously looking at the GT version, anyhow we still have large concern on the reliability
Later BMW jadi Bengkel Makan Wang

This post has been edited by potatobanana: Jul 9 2021, 01:41 PM

Overprice as u pay for the cbu tax. Then getting the underpowered engine considering the price u pay for it vs other conti. No doubt about the reliability

This post has been edited by ayamxxx: Jul 9 2021, 03:09 PM

well TS is talking about reliability and conti ma..
so reliability with conti feel = lexus.
don't say price yet la

Same, family old car back then w210 E200K always had issues. Most spend changing the kompressor due to k.o with recond unit.

Then upgrade to w211 E240 NA V6. Best reliable on engine. Not sure on current gen Merz. But as my sister car, w212 E250 kinda no issues on engine, just pricey to service it at SC

Sometimes also known as Banyak Masuk Workshop

You can try Mazda, or Golf Manual.

Don't buy any dry clutch auto car.

bmw b48 engine with 8 speed gear box non dual clucth

one of the less problematic engine plus robust gearbox match together