I have some experience with the German automotive industry (having worked at a company that is a service provider for much of the German giants), I can instantly confirm a few things, which are known by some and suspected by most:

Historically VW has been the "people's car" - a good car that people could afford and for the longest period that was the case: affordable and rock-solid. Around the late 2000s, that changed. VWs are no longer affordable and when problems hit, they hit hard - they are both time consuming and unless covered by a warranty, expensive. Also hard to fix even if it's something simple. That problem is cascading down the entire VW Group and it is hurting everyone along the way. Some companies under the VW Group are hit very hard by this. At the same time, the second big player, Mercedes, was never really affordable but lately their image of a tank-solid machine has cracked, suffering from a similar, brutally over-engineered, unmaintainable, engineering maze as VW. BMW is in a similar state as Mercedes but with a slightly different twist: BMW's are not to everyone's taste and I am saying that as an owner myself. But these days even the most die-hard fans acknowledge that the modern designs are absolutely atrocious. Top Gear were making fun of the Porsche Panamera back in the day but looking at new BMWs, I'd pick the Panamera in a heartbeat. In addition to their hard push for anti-consumer practices and outrageously over-engineered solutions.

All of this has painted German cars in a negative way - expensive and finicky. Most of the customers were happy to pay a higher price for quality and creature comforts but there is a line between comfort and something dumb like having to visit a mechanic in order to swap a dead battery - something which should have been a simple operation that you can do on the side of the road if it comes down to it. And even though I am happy with my current car and I don't plan on changing it anytime soon, if I were in the market for a new car, I'd definitely consider other options, knowing what I know.

My suggestion to the big-3 which will start solving problems: KISS.