Beef between German and Japanese car enthusiasts?

[boosted_bullet]

i remember reading somewhere that the k-series motor was rumored to be developed by porsche.???? (german)
is this true?? does anyone else remember this?

[onlytrueromeo]

I think its just a rumor, I remember a bunch of discussion, but no facts.

[Mad Cow]

I remember reading about something like that. What I remember is that porsche designed it then sold the plans to mazda, who tweaked it a bit. So ha!

And a 90 degree hood is more useful than you think, it gives you so much more room. And it's all about the small things like power front headrests, rear headrests that fold back at the press of a button to improve visibility, being able close the windows and sunroof from just turning the key in the door to lock it, there's no much more that I don't remember. Mercedes invented so many of the standard features on cars these days that there's nothing you can compare them to.

Volkswagens are the only german cars I don't like, they're just generally too bland and normal, there's nothing special about them.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

i remember reading somewhere that the k-series motor was rumored to be developed by porsche.???? (german)
is this true?? does anyone else remember this?

I read that they worked alongside porsche on the engine, had tech input and such but I don't think porsche did the majority of the development.

[fowljesse]

Wow Jesse that's some amazing s---, I wish I had an early start and could do all that

I actually kind of hated it, but appreciate the knowledge now. I learned to drive when I was 10, so I could move customer's cars around, though, and occasionally got to drive across town
Every car company has the same technology. It's how they choose to use the budget for a particular car that sets them apart. Part of the budget is the engineering.
There are a thousand things that make a person like one company or another.
Don't let anyone upset you about your car choice, mods, etc... because they've already lost by trying to make you feel bad.

[boosted_bullet]

wow. so i wonder what parts are german and what parts are jap.
who gets credit for vris? if there is some place i can read about this point me in the direction...

[projectzemx3]

german cars are nice cars, they do it right. you close the door on a new generation VW and it has a very satisyfing "thud". the gear box's feel sloppy and i hate the clutchs in german cars. i find you have to lift too high before it engages, unlike japanese cars low engagement point (dont even get me started on GM gear box's)

however i do HATE a lot about german cars. especially the wheel studs OMG i hate that... and the fact that all vw lock keys are the same, essentially making it extremely easy to bypass that as a problem when going to steal vw rims.

my moms mini is a fun car to drive and seems to be built with quality in mind, my dads 99 bmw 325 was also a very nice car that ran like it did brand new till the day he traded it in with 225 thou KM.

however if there is beef between the two, well then i guess is japanese for the win.

[Mad Cow]

One thing I really don't like about german cars is their weird gas pedals. I hate how it actually pivots at the bottom where it touches the floor and you need your whole foot on it to get it to move. And it's just so damn hard to press it, it takes more effort to just move the gas pedal on a c280 than it takes to floor the mx3's gas pedal.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

I really like SOME German cars, same way I really like some Japanese cars.
For example: I would KILL, to have a Z4M the same way I'd kill to have a miata, or an RX7, but I wouldn't be caught dead on a beetle, or a jetta, or a civic...you get the idea.
But you gotta love a manufacturer that takes a car not much bigger than a miata and puts a monster engine in it, from the factory, while still keeping the handling and the fun to drive factor off the charts.

[Icarus_27]

Japanese cars have some things going for them. German engineers do some weird stuff that makes maintenance a comparative pain eg. lug studs

[v6powered]

Don't they know tuning started in Japan

Dont you know that the first engine / car was built in germany?

I like german cars, especially mercedes. but i love japanese cars, too.

but the negative things you are talking about are more or less false.
for example, have you ever tried to maintain a rx7? apart from that you are comparing apples and oranges, because you compare newer german cars with older japanese cars. most older german cars are easier to maintain than japanese. its a fact.

or the hard gas pedal, this has to be a defect. they are as easy as my in the mx3. just because its hard on one car, it doesnt mean its for all cars.

dont get me wrong, i love my mx3, i have spent 11 000€ now on it and i had the chance to buy a mercedes sl from 2005, but i kept my mx3.

and i would rather buy a nissan s15 than a porsche. why? because i love japanese cars, and they are exotics in germany.

[edger0587]

Can someone verify this. I read somewhere that the mazda k series engine was codeveloped by Porsche. In which case, we as MX3 GS owners got the best of both worlds.

[Ryan]

In a very small way, yes. The articles read "With some input from Porche" meaning one of their engineers may have suggested a single notion....

But I think we shoull brag about it regardless

[_-Night-Shade-_]

I was just on youtube and I stumbled onto a guy with a jetta who posted a video called "what's wrong with my car???" in which his wheels made a squeeling noise when he drove. Prolly brake pads or rotors, w/e. Anyways one guy writes: "I know what's wrong... it's a VW" Hahahahhaha YES!

[Mad Cow]

I was just on youtube and I stumbled onto a guy with a jetta who posted a video called "what's wrong with my car???" in which his wheels made a squeeling noise when he drove. Prolly brake pads or rotors, w/e. Anyways one guy writes: "I know what's wrong... it's a VW" Hahahahhaha YES!

Heh, reminds me of a friend. He has a '98 golf with 160k km's (yea that's crazy low). He says that nothing's wrong with his car, except a seat adjust's broken, and he has a little plastic cover that broke off, and his horn only works when the wheel's in a certain position, and his rear wiper's broken, etc. Every time I'm in that car I find something wrong.