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I have never seen a single quality survey in the last 20 years where VW was not near the bottom of the heap. Durable I would agree with from personal experience. Reliable? No way. The data simply doesn't support that assertion.

You must not have been looking at the same quality surveys then.. 6 out of the top 10 car models in this satisfaction survey from last year are VW or one of its brands (Skoda):

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/2014-jd-power-survey-volkswagen-big-winner/1296353

Even the lowest scoring VW is still mid-table

The Leaf is not an economical car, either in monetary terms or for the environment.

My car, similar in performance and physical size to a Leaf, gets 40mpg average and costs £50 to fill the tank, which I do bi-weekly. It looks like we have roughly the same annual mileage, too, of around 8 - 10k. Maintenance and tax is approx 500 per year, covering tyre changes, brake pads etc as required, adding up to approximately £1800 per annum. My car was purchased for £7000, brand new.

At my (our) usage level, and if your car has no running costs at all, you will have made the money back on your initial investment of £26,000 (base model, UK price) within 10 years. I am aware that there are leasing options for just the battery, or the entire car, but leasing is never cheaper than an outright cash purchase.

Oh, and my car has a 300 mile range, doesn't suffer from poor performance in cold weather, and is "recharged" to full capacity, everywhere, in less than five minutes. But yeah, that Leaf... <s>At least it's green </s>

here's the link to that quote:

http://www.whatcar.com/car-new...

Can anybody give me a reason not to have stability control where that reasons does not contain “fun” or “because”? (which might be sufficient – just looking for any other reasons.)

'Cause, uh, it's a sports car designed for racing?

Mid-engined cars are designed solely to get around corners fast, and they're extremely unstable compared to your average Ford or Honda. The problem is that many are bought by people who have no clue, and end up in a ditch the first time they take their foot off the gas in a corner.

I have had several mid-engine sports cars, both with and without stability control, and you're wrong, mid-engine is the most stable engine configuration a vehicle can have, otherwise why would F1 cars all be mid-engine?

Mid-engine is so stable that the mid-engine Porsche Cayman is commonly known to be the best handling vehicle money can buy:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-mid-vs-rear-engine-debate-porsche-cayman-r-vs-911-gt3-feature
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2014-porsche-cayman-cayman-s-first-drive-review
http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/the-best-handling-car-in-america-for-less-than-100k-feature
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Porsche_Cayman/Performance/
http://jalopnik.com/is-the-new-porsche-cayman-still-the-worlds-best-sports-333874537
http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/porsche/cayman-coupe/summary/26174-4

http://www.examiner.com/article/porsche-cayman-world-s-best-sports-car


For a good example of why mid-engine is better imagine a shopping cart with a 30 pack of beer in it and pushing the cart from the back. Front engine is equivalent to putting the beer in the very front of the cart and mid-engine is equivalent to putting the beer at the back of the cart. Try both and tell me which is easier to push around a corner.

So what do I think happened? Fluke 1-in-a-million accident that couldn't be repeated if you tried.

You're right.

The answer to better MPG than the pitiful excuse that currently flies in the US, however, is far cheaper available. It's called "import", and it's available from just about any country that isn't the US.
Anecdote: I drove about 1300 km this weekend (800 miles), and I averaged at 5.1 l/100km. That's 46 MPG right of the bat. (and that's measured, in the magic world of fuel efficiency numbers it gets over 65 mpg...)

I think if the US can close a 20MPG gap in one day (by importing that car), then 13 years of improvement ought to suffice for the remaining 9 MPG.
Or we can settle for the magical numbers made up by the fuel efficiency measuring fairies, in which case all you need to do is get that car and you're there.

All cars I've owned since 1999 has deadlocked door/trunk locks[1] and I've not come across a car made in the last decade without one, and none of them has an internal trunk release, so that's the question of getting the right car, maybe?

[1] where the lock physically disconnects from the key cylinder/internal lock pins so even if the window's smashed, the thief cannot open the door. I've tested it when locking my car with the window open. See here. You can only activate it when the engine's off and when the car thinks there's no-one inside.

Without looking too hard, I've found a car that gets 60MPG (Imperial - so about 50MPG US gallons) and will get you from 0 to 60 in 9 seconds witha top speed of around 130 mph. Seems like a long list of safety kit too.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/alfa-romeo/giulietta-hatchback/2-0-jtdm-140-lusso-5dr/specifications/62201

You wouldn't have to look hard - that's a smidge on the large side but otherwise it's not at all unusual for a European car. By no means is it an outlier.

Frankly, I have no idea what Americans are doing to make their cars so fantastically inefficient - is the petrol not as rich?

Wow, a lesson in design tradeoffs. You can't have a large comfortable, safe car with several air bags, an enormous crumple zone with decent acceleration that gets 40 MPG.

Without looking too hard, I've found a car that gets 60MPG (Imperial - so about 50MPG US gallons) and will get you from 0 to 60 in 9 seconds witha top speed of around 130 mph. Seems like a long list of safety kit too. http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/alfa-romeo/giulietta-hatchback/2-0-jtdm-140-lusso-5dr/specifications/62201

drive the thing, and get a massive discount:

http://www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=231661

"3850-mile test drive ends in arrest
07 March 2008

3850-mile test drive ends in arrest
  Six-day, 3850-mile test drive man arrested
  He travelled almost the length of Australia
  Dealership sells car at a massive discount

While we'd always recommend you take a car for a thorough test drive before buying it, it's fair to say that an Australian man who went on a six-day, 3850-mile trip went a step too far.

Tam Thai Luu, 30, convinced a car dealer in Melbourne that he was a genuine buyer, and then set off on his test drive in a Honda Accord before the salesman could get in the passenger seat."

I fail to see how this is better than the already existing self-parking systems...

There are probably more cameras than cars on the road.

There are roughly 6000 cameras on UK roads. Compare to 33 million cars. Stop spreading FUD.

Do you think they need to put something in your car to know where you are?

If you're going to implement road pricing, then yes. The alternative is installing cameras on every road in the country.

is What Car? in the UK. I never go there anymore because of the interstitial ads.