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Comment by Sohcahtoa82 | Hacker News Reader

Even the term "quality" is subjective.

I equate "quality" with long-term reliability, something BMW is known for not having, so I wouldn't consider BMWs to be quality cars.

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I'm wondering how much context plays role in this perception — for example, I'm from Europe and find it somewhat confusing when people from USA talk about BMW/VW as utterly unreliable; here, it's the reverse — people equate VW cars as reliable and unpretentious, while BMW reliable and having great driving dynamics. Many people do consider BMW/VW as well-engineered/well-built quality cars that provide relatively good residuals.

Agreed. A lot of Lexus's are also high quality relative to other cars, but they're also grossly overpriced since you can buy the same quality at half the price with a Toyota badge.

You need to read some Pirsig. Quality is anything but subjective.

So... the last (and only?) quality car was the DeLorean?

My 1996 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck is still going, with around 400,000km on it, and just regular maintenance, except for the time someone stole the catalytic converter and I had to have it replaced.

DeLoreans didn't even have short-term reliability.

So I've heard... the DeLorean came to mind, because AFAIK, it's the only mass-produced car ever(?) to have a stainless steel chassis, theoretically making it thus immune to corrosion.

Correction: "[...]and stood out for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, as well as an innovative fiberglass body structure with a steel backbone chassis."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMC_DeLorean

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