| APACHE - is that the helicopter that cannot fly in dust, rain, snow, sleet, hail, cloud, sunshine etc???
You must have different VW's over there - they're known for their reliability over here.
Take your point on the OPEL but saying that, I had a vauxhall cavalier (english version of OPEL) which had 150,000 miles on her when I retired her and still the engine started first time and ran sweet as a nut - Despite me thrashing the arse off it for 5 years.
Personally I would never buy an American car or a British car - As most british cars are now owned by american companies and have therefore suffered in the quality stakes - The baby JAG (x type) is now nothing more than a FORD mondeo with a jaguar looking body shell. Aston Martin - once each car was individually hand made, now under FORD ownership they have implemented a PRODUCTION LINE for god sake!!!
OK Bentley and Rolls Royce have passed to German companies and what about rover??? DON'T EVEN GO THERE - I wouldn't piss on a rover/MG if it was on fire.
The only decent British car companies left are the likes of Caterham and such like, but even bloody TVR has just been bought by a 23 yr old Russian.
Nope, I'm afraid it's German or Jap all the way for me - People might slate jap (RICER) cars, but in the last 10 years they have become world leaders in car manufacturing technology and produce many of the best cars in Britiain (My dad will buy nothing but Mazda and my brother only runs highly tuned Nissans).
PS Unions kill every industry eventually - look at the state of British industry, dead as a dodo! | 
