Germans cars have never been particuarly reliable, that isn't the same as quality. The low reliability is mostly due to excessive complexity in the upmarket models they sell in the USA- too many features and exotic performance focused engines. The simple and reliable basic models from most of the german car companies aren't sold in the USA. It doesn't change the fact that the components, materials, and engineering are excellent, and they will last a lifetime if maintained well. The safety, performance, and driver experience are unparalleled.

That is utter bullshit. European brands are aside from Japanese ones the best at quality control. Even the oldest Volkswagen in my family is still in use, even it is over 30 years old. I mean there were some series of BMW that were bad, but those days are gone for good.

I agree with the reliability, but haven't seen that in the rest of what you mention. I'm definitely a car snob, and have driven high end luxury and sports cars from the Japanese and American companies, and they just don't have the driving experience, attention to detail, etc. of say, even a base model Porsche. It's tiny details most people probably don't notice- keeping the wind noise down with the windows and/or convertible top down, using corrosion resistant fasteners and coatings everywhere, perfectly tuning the pedal responsiveness and steering feel, balancing the weight, getting the gear ratios and/or shifting programs just right for performance driving, putting pillars in the right place for road visibility, etc. Also things like massively over-sizing the cooling and braking systems so they don't overheat under extreme conditions or hard use.

There is also the effectivness of the traction and stability control systems- which I think is related partially to oversizing the brakes. Even "serious" offroad vehicles from Lexus and Toyota don't have nearly as good of traction control offroad as a basic German passenger car.

So what would I get from China instead of a BMW M4 or Audi S5? That would be on par for craftsmanship, dynamics, safety, reliability, price. I'm quite curious.

But what world is that? The one where we magically achieve the energy abundance necessary to support EVs?

It’s unlikely, and as EV adoption winds up consuming more and more of the grid capacity, expect the TCO of these cars to skyrocket.

It will be more reliable because of its simplicity, but it won't last longer if they're both maintained to a high standard. You can't really get around the fact that a much higher end car using more expensive materials, construction processes, etc. is going to wear better over time. All of the highest mileage cars in the world are old european cars- mostly Volvos and Mercedes.

It also depends on how you use it... a Porsche isn't as reliable in daily driving as a Honda, but the Honda could be destroyed immediately with hard driving on a race track, and you could do it everyday for years in the Porsche.

I drive an old VW and old Porsche that are both decades old, with high miles, and basically both in brand new shape still. They get used very hard- the VW is used for camping offroad and heavy towing, and I both daily commute and race the Porsche.

My Volkswagen will last way longer