this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Don't know what exactly the survey asked, but "quality" wasn't the only consideration.

"Quality, security standards, value for money, uniqueness, design, advanced technology, authenticity, sustainability, fair production, status symbol" https://www.statista.com/page/Made-In-Country-Index

Was wondering why the USA was so high.

"2017"

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

GERMAN ENGINEERING IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

From the stuff I've looked at, it's often nonsensical. Doing stuff in unconventional ways for little apparent reason. Like, in BMWs example, you have to use a lift or jack up the car level to just check the transmission fluid; or the mostly-plastic cooling system which fails and results in the engine being ruined often. I've seen other weird engineering choices in electronics too (have done contract work for a German company).

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In my 335i the front differential goes THROUGH the oil pan

Replacing the oil pan gasket required me to drop the entire subframe of the car

And ya the water pump routinely goes every like 80000km. Designed to fail.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Engineering for repair is part of engineering that Germany has evidently forgotten.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Until you (maybe not exactly you), a common folk without engineering school, try to repair it. Sheeeshh

There's engineering and overengineering

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

good luck finding anything made in germany in germany though xD

[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wtf how Scandinavia and Japan are not on top?

Funny thing about Germany, after all these years, quality differs a lot between west and former ussr ghetto. Knowing this saves lots of cash.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Might be due to cars. Japan used to make affordable cars and that kinda painted expectations on some markets. Also correlates to Germany being high up, everyone knows German cars are good.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

At similar price Japanese cars were better for decades though. But Germany had Luxury cars that if you paid the extra price, Germany had the better car. AFAIK Germany never had a decidedly bad brand.

UK Had Vauxhall, Italy had Alfa Romeo, and France had Simca. Those cars had about half the average life span of a VW, but Volvo used to top that rank even over luxury brands like Mercedes. In the 80's the average lifespan in Denmark of a Volvo was 22 years, compared to an average of 13!

PS:
! is for exclamation mark, not factorial.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Those cars had about half the average life span of a VW

Air cooled or water cooled?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That doesn't really matter, it was from the 60's to the 90's, and air cooling was out by the 80's even for VW.
French cars still have the highest rate of flaws within first year of ownership. British brands have improved, but they've also all been bought up, mostly by Germany. But Vauxhall simply went under due to the poor quality, they were often rusty already when you drove it from the dealership! Vauxhall was bought by Opel (GM), and since that Vauxhall were merely rebranded Opel cars. Which were of way way higher quality. Today the brand is owned by Stelantis after CSA bough Opel from GM. So quality has probably dropped, because Stellantis is currently run like a clown show.
AFAIK neither Alfa Romeo, Simca or Vauxhall used air cooling. And compared to VW, it doesn't matter if you compare to water cooled or not. And I could also have compared to Volvo, in which case the 3 bad brands would look even worse.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That doesnโ€™t really matter, it was from the 60โ€™s to the 90โ€™s, and air cooling was out by the 80โ€™s even for VW.

And there was a steep decline in vehicle longevity thereafter.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

No that's not true, cars of the 60's and 70's rusted way faster, and their mechanical quality was not nearly as good as modern cars. Average car quality has steadily improved, so despite way higher safety regulations, they still last as long.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

At similar price Japanese cars were better for decades though

Damn right.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unless the east German product was made in the GDR, then it will probably outlive you. I have a table made in 60s east Germany and it's still in impeccable shape and will probably last longer than me

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn these translated abbriviations are tough. For me they were BRD and DDR

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

wartburg reference?

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I don't really trust in the "made in (country of ur choosing)" label. Lots of stuff in that product is still made in china ๐Ÿ˜• For example with quick googling i found out there are no legal requirements for a product to be allowed to have Made in Germany label and even the guideline is only 45% of the products value added there or the product being assembled there.

It just feels like a big scam to me personally.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Final assembly is also where the final quality control is. Generally it works fine, but I've heard that cheating is very common in USA, they put some part on a product made in China, but the part is made in USA, and then they print MADE IN USA on that.
Most other places in the world, you can reasonably trust the label.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Still i think if most of the materials and stuff is made in china, just assembling the stuff in different country does not change the fact that it's still made in china.

I just read about a project one company in my country is doing. They just straight up said that there are not enough textile makers in Europe to change the manufacturing here. They do plan on changing most of the assembling to Europe but that does not make the stuff European in my books. It's a good start but the materials are still chinese.

When we can make stuff without needing to import stuff from china we are at satisfactory level of manufacturing. Excluding materials that are actually impossible to make here.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There was an investigative video I watched recently (I wish I remember the source, sorry), and they said that designer products which are "Made in Italy" quite literally only needs something like sewing on a zipper, to make it so, despite the rest of the product being made in China.

I recently ran into coffee that was a "Product of Canada", and I know damn well that coffee beans aren't grown here! At the very most, they could label it as "roasted in Canada" or "Packed in Canada", but "Product of Canada" is a flat out lie (and likely illegal in this context).

I suspect a lot of "Made in" products are the same, but there are companies who are very transparent and will explain how their products are made, so I try to seek them out.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

So apparently Canada is as bad as USA? I must admit I'm a bit surprised about that. But maybe a requirement for the worthless trade deal USA and Canada have or rather had?
Because otherwise American companies would have to relabel things for Canada.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Considering that I do check all labels, and this problem really only came up once, I don't think it's massively widespread. This coffee was from a small business, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they don't know the labelling requirement.

Generally speaking, we have pretty good labelling requirements, but there are times when labels can be vague or misleading. Like seeing packaged goods that say "Baked in Canada" means squat to me. Where were the ingredients grown and where were they processed?

I'm referring most to food items. I'm not sure how good/bad it is for other products.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In the US a product only has to be 10 percent US made to be "made in the US". Also, when you import something into the US and export it again, it's "made in the US".

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Yep, that's exactly why i think it's a scam in a big scale. Sure it depends on the country how much value added or how much the product needs to be made in that country but it's always relativly little. Just selling the same china stuff with inflated prices to customers who think they are supporting local production of the goods.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

As a Canadian I used to think oh good at least that's somewhat local when I saw the "made in USA" label. Now I'm like flip this upside down and replace on shelf so the next person doesn't waste their time

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Counterpoint: Deutsche Bahn AG

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