ninethreeeleven

In Consumer Reports and similar magazines, and magazines that are not so similar like Car & Driver and the like, they talk about the Reliability of vehicles. Now I know that with Consumer Reports they ask consumers who own the products, and with other magazines they test drive and look at the market numbers (recalls, general problem issues, etc).

But what is deemed "unreliable." I just don't really understand how a $80,000 Mercedes can be judged (whether rightfully or not) as unreliable. What I mean is, I had a 1987 VW Jetta. I would deem that unreliable. I would get in it on a cold morning and it would not start. The next day it would be fine. See, its unreliable, I could not rely on my car starting. Do people hop in their $80K MBenz and have it not start?

Or is reliability a big word for small problems, like "we turned on the wipers and they didn't work, but then tried again and they did" That would be unreliable wipers, but not an unreliable car.

I guess I would deem reliability as the car doing what it is designed to do on a continued basis. Pull the door handle, the door opens. Hit the button and the window rolls up. Put pressure on the breaks and your come to a stop.

What is reliability to these magazines and what is it to you?

And lets not say "Car A is more reliable" lets be really objective, unless of course you can tell me why a $80k MB is unreliable.

Penforhire

My time is worth something to me. If I have to take my car to the dealer for a warranty repair I'm almost as unhappy if he is fixing the window motor as I am for a driveline problem. But one is a convenience-feature and the other is a functional problem.

Reliability, to me, is driving a car into the ground at least 100K miles later (I'm hard on my cars) with nothing more than scheduled preventive maintenance. The closest I've come was my 1995 Acura Integra GSR.

Unreliable is stranding me on the side of the road, like my 1982 280ZX whose water pump died twice <grrrr> and left me stranded twice.

Magazine reporting varies but usually aren't all complaints recorded as a "fault"? The high-end cars have more electronics in them and there is some correlation between leading-edge electronics and early failures. IIRC, BMW takes a big hit on their expensive models because of this. I also seem to recall my old Integra as being listed among models with the fewest electrical gremlins (anecdotally true for me).

Again anecdotally but, my general manager's wife's $80-ish K MB (forget the model but very nice) blew the output shaft splines on her tranny. I got to see the old part, dealer figured it wasn't properly heat treated, and it had rounded off completely. Fixed under warranty but still annoying eh?

Palmateer

A vehicle is also not reliable if you underinflate your tires per the manufacturer's (Ford) recommendation (to improve handling), then at highway speeds the (Firestone) tires blow and flip your vehicle and kill passengers.

9-BAR

Reliability... is owning a new car for it's warrantable life and never needing anything but oil changes every 3000 miles or so.

rai

also known (for me) as Japanese cars...

However my toyota has had 3 recalls but have been un-seen by me, that is no overt trouble just recall taken care along with regular scheduled maintance.

iatacs19

Amen.

(tranny oil does need changing for Hondas though)

no_really

reliability is an over-blown concept for people who can find no other way their chosesn car is superior to something else. It means very little in the real world, as applied to new cars.

A modern car's "reliability" has more to do with the owner's care than anything else. If you take care of it, virtually any ne car is going to run though the warrantee period problem-free.

Also, if warrantee period is the only measure, then you could park your new car for the entire warrantee time period, then claim it was "reliable," and point at your neighbor, who ran through his mileage warrrantee period in a year and a half, and say that his broken window switch and replaced brakes show his car choice was "unreliable."

Magazine reliability surveys are generally useless for anything except counting the people who will answer surveys from a magaine they subscribe to.

y2ks2k

Reliability for me is related to more major issues that required me to take it in a shop to fix. Minor issues like squeaking that I might try to get them to fix does not qualify to me. Examples of issues I have had reliabilty issues with:

95 del Sol: 8K miles: Fule pump replaced, targa top rattles (heavy rattles)

01 S2000: Clutch replacement at 800 miles.

Christople

Toyota


lol

Skuzzy

I have low standards. I just want a car to start up, go down the road, and be able to turn every time I get in it.

But then again, I drive a 72 Datsun 510.