Why do you sometimes hate german engineering.

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

This is a rant thread about some German design aspects.

Mine is about the stupid mk4 carpet anchor system. Not only is there round or oval clips there is also short and tall. Ordered carpets from america and couldn't figure out why they dont fit and its because i have tall plugs and they must have the short ones. Problem is i cant change the front clips to small either so im kinda screwed at the moment.

[geoff_gti]

I had to replace a set on my front passenger mat. The ones I got from VW Welshpool (JH) were the round ones, but wrong size - too big, as in the disks were too wide (or they didn't fit the hole in the mat, it was ages ago...can't quite remember.
Ended up getting a set though Quattros, I think it was an Audi part # that matched.
I've still got the bigger ones if you want to check a part number if you've got a set in the size you need.
Let me know

Oh, and my driver's window switch just busted itself, goes down but not up! Plastic has broken inside, lucky I can close the windows from the remote! lol

[The_Hawk]

I don't think it's a German enginerring thing, rather just an engineering thing. People build something that works well, sometimes the design is "improved" for one reason or another mid model but then 10 years later we start to see the points of failure come to light... usually in the most inconvienient place... and then around a corner.

Ahhh, the things that seemed like a good idea at the time. The Mk3 is full of them:

Vacuum system for Cruise control, central locking and even the recirculate flap in the AC... All of which end up broken or leaking and are a royal PITA to get at if you need to replace what should be a very simple system. And lets not forget the placement of the heatercore... or the plastic part in the electric windows that breaks...

[geoff_gti]

haha yeah, plastic window clips ftw! both my front windows have been fixed too

[Blitzen]

Mmm... The fact that the neglected to put diesel engines in their tanks during WW2... Only real problem I have with German engineering... They made up for it with the Leopard though...