Toyota VS Volkswagen

At almost halfway through 2017, one question arises in my mind. Which car companies have dominated the world since the turn of the century?

The first two manufacturers to pop into my head were Toyota and Volkswagen. But I can’t really go on that – alone – so I thought I should probably look it up. And as it turns out, I was right. So the next question is: What are they and why have they been so successful?

I’ll start with Toyota. They are easily the cars we most commonly see on the road in our everyday lives. You spend five minutes spotting different brands on the road, and they’re mostly what you’ll see.

The company was founded in 1937 by a man named Sakichi Toyoda (no, that’s not a typo). Since then, the company has progressed hugely, and in 2015 alone, produced a massive 10,083,831 cars. And it’s easy to see why. Their cars are largely cheap and affordable, as well as offering all the other necessities of comfort, safety, and reliability. They’ve got plenty of iconic models, such as the Corolla, Yaris, and the Camry, which just about dominate roads all over the globe nowadays. Perhaps unfortunately.

Toyota is also in charge of many other popular brands, chief of which is Lexus, Toyota’s prestigious arm, which offers similar levels of luxury (and price) to the German giants. Toyota also owns Scion, Daihatsu - for what that may be worth - Hino and Isuzu. Part of the reason Toyota does so well could be simply due to the fact they have such a huge range of vehicles under their corporate belt.

Perhaps most famously, though, Toyota is known for being among the best, if not the best, when it comes to manufacturing quality cars. And by quality, I don’t mean folding laptops in the back seats or fancy varnished oak on the dashboard, I mean reliability, comfort, safety, and engines that don’t gulp down 50 litres every 100 km. To say the least, Toyota’s reliability record is fantastic, and recalls are rare, for the amount of vehicles we're talking about.

Now, to VW. You probably already know the history, but I’ll tell you again. Volkswagen, or the “people’s car”, was initiated by Adolf Hitler in 1937 with the intention of giving the German “volk” a cheap set of wheels. Their first production was the famous Volkswagen Type 1, better known as the “Beetle”, which did just that, and was designed by none other than the founder of Porsche, Ferdinand, um, Porsche.

Even if Hitler’s didn’t, Volkswagen’s empire has certainly grown since then (despite the fact it’s factory was virtually razed to the ground during World War II), and they now own countless other automobile companies. While you don’t see nearly as many VWs as you do Toyotas, their incredibly long list of subjects makes up for it.

If you really want the list, here it is: Audi AG, Automobili Lamborghini SpA, Bentley Motors Ltd, Bugatti Automobiles SAS, Porsche AG, Ducati Motor Holding SpA (which they're selling to pay for Dieselgate costs), MAN SE, Scania AB, Seat SA, Skoda Auto AS, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and Volkswagen Passenger Cars. It’s a good thing that’s all of them because my fingers are sore.

This list puts VW comfortably in the Top 3 when it comes to the world of auto groups. They’re bigger than General Motors, and GM isn’t even an individual company. Volkswagen is.

But what about the cars themselves? Well, the first thing to note is that they’re not really “cars for the people” anymore – they’re not all that cheap. Mind you, they’re still a lot less than the likes of Mercedes or BMW or Audi.

They’re definitely still German, as you can tell from the clean and neat designs inside and out. They’re also very well thought out, and having been in a Volkswagen myself, I can say they are supremely relaxing and comfortable, without ever feeling over-the-top.

Then there’s the engines. Economic as we know, but perhaps not always as economic as Volkswagen suggests. More importantly, they’re also powerful and reliable.

So, ultimately, what’s the big difference between these two, Volkswagen and Toyota? Well, on one hand, you have quality, comfort, reliability, and sophistication. And on the other, you have quality, comfort, reliability, and affordability.

At the end of the day, you have to decide whether you’d prefer to drive about with a German or a Jap. And I’m not saying anything.

Try our Toyota VS VOLKSWAGEN QUIZ:

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