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I disagree with the whole German cars being reliable thing. Maybe 25-30 years ago, they got a reputation for being reliable and deservedly so but these days, not so much. The Volkswagen/Audi FSI/TSI are crap in terms of reliability for want of a better word, the DSGs are terrible for clutch and mechatronic system failures and horrendously expensive to repair when they go wrong. The Germans put so much focus on trying to cram their cars with new technology and gadgets that some of it is bound to fail at some stage. But to answer your original question, American or German? Japanese every time.

As said, signs of wear and tear generally point to high miles. Worn pedal rubbers, gearstick, steering wheel, drivers seat bolster. On a car with old style analogue odometer, make sure the numbers are all in a straight line, if one or more are slightly out of line, there is a chance it has been tampered with. Also check the screws on the dashboard above the steering wheel for marks caused by screwdrivers/torx or other tools. Also a good sign that someone has been in there tampering. On cars with digital odometer it's a bit more difficult to tell for sure without plugging it into a computer. Some cars log the correct mileage in the ECU whilst the display can show something completely different but the ECU will always have the correct miles. It's so easy to change the mileage on digital odometers too, all you need is a laptop, a lead and a piece of torrented software and you can change the mileage on many cars in a few minutes. On a side note, I once worked on a car in the UK and had to remove the dash clocks to fit a bulb and found a note stuck to the back saying 'Third time clocked LOL'. Some people have no shame.

Check that one of the balancing weights hasn't fallen off your wheel.

Have you check all the 4 wheels from inside for any presence of sand as this occasional issue often caused by little sand inside the wheel and when circle with the wheel rotation perfectly it doesn't cause any imbalance, but when it rotate in two three places inside the tire then it causes imbalance. Worth removing it off the rim and get it cleaned.