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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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The premium is unfortunately not in the interior and infotainment experience, at least not these days. And I guess to non car people, the infotainment is what sells cars now.
The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains, the best chassis and suspension setups, to give you an excellent ride quality AND sporty handling in the same 2 ton family station wagon. Nobody compares, not even Volvo. But interior layouts have been going downhill steadily for like a decade now. And when it comes to EVs, you can't really compete without being Chinese anyway. Other countries don't have access to the same battery pricing, nor the same labor costs (to be fair the latter applies to both ICE and EV alike).
They'll all die slow deaths. As EVs become mandated, Chinese companies will take over because nobody else can afford to sell cars for so cheap. The Chinese cars will of course have all the same infotainment issues like unwanted ads and they'll be similar privacy nightmares, plus the prices will go up once you can only buy Chinese cars. It'll be fun and we'll all love it.
* Toyota Supra A90 used BMW's B58 engine. That should tell you everything you need to know. TOYOTA didn't bother coming up with their own engine for the chassis they also got from BMW. It's been heralded as the modern 2JZ.
Plenty of non Chinese brands are on the EV train now.
I can buy an Alpine that it is, in every conceivable way, better than the cheapest VW EV (while being a bit cheaper, or the same price). How is this not a problem with German manufacturers specifically?
What are all the conceivable ways to you? Anyway, the Renault 5 is almost as much as the bigger id.3 neo here and we don't have anyone selling the Alpine version as it's more expensive than the 5 and thus too expensive for such a tiny car.
And all of these cost at least 4x as much as a similarly sized but lower power BYD does in China. That's how much cheaper the Chinese can build their cars. When they sell the same batteries to Renault or VW, the batteries alone likely cost about as much as BYD's entire car. And we can't really produce these batteries at such scale here in Europe because of pollution regulation. China processes most of the world's lithium and cobalt. Only hope we have is coming up with a magic battery chemistry that doesn't come with a ton of environmental issues, but unfortunately Donut Labs is more than likely a scam.
Dad has a BMW. It has a too smooth dampening and steering adjustment to speed, so you'll vastly underestimate how fast you're driving. I won't drive his car anymore; too dangerous.
Until the lease expires, then they are a nightmare to maintain. Money pits.
That tends to be adjustable in cars now. Oftentimes the comfort setting is vague on purpose on a lot of cars. My Audi in comfort is fine if not a bit too soft for spirited driving on back roads, on Dynamic it's perfect for that. It's a 2007 Allroad though. Still has hydraulic (but variable) power steering and such.
When I had my 2019 C-Class, it felt just right for this type of driving, even though that one had steel springs and no adjustable dampers, but did have adjustable steering since it was fully electric power steering. It also felt completely at home cruising at 150-160 km/h (no autobahn here so I wouldn't go faster than that usually).
Only BMW I ever owned was an E61 and that one also had superb road feel, though I hear the newer ones aren't as good, since they do optimize for the highway rather than the curvy roads I personally prefer driving on.
In comparison, I test drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5, a small electric hatchback I thought would be sporty-ish, and that had zero road feel. Outright dangerous going fast into a corner with it, and with the electric torque it was certainly tempting to do so before I realized how little I know about its grip limits.