I agree with @Mustangman on this issue. Consumer Reports repair records are based on surveys send to its subscribers. CR subscribers may or may not represent the population as a whole. In the last 10 years, CR seems to be testing more upscale products which probably reflects the tastes of its subscribers. Some years back, I owned a Ford Maverick. It had a much worse frequency of repair record than the same car sold under the Mercury nameplate as the Comet. I wrote to Consumer Reports about this discrepancy and the answer I received was âthat is the way the data came outâ.To me, that answer wasnât satisfactory. I later discovered that on Ford/Mercury twins that the average age of the Mercury owner was about 7 years more than the average age of the Ford owner.
Now I have had good luck with Toyota products. However, for the first 100.000 miles of ownership, my 2006 Chevrolet Uplander was less expensive to maintain than my 2011 Toyota Sienna. The cost to replace the water pump on the Sienna was $975. I never had a repair that expensive on the Uplander. In fact, my son now has the Uplander and it has.gone 200,000 miles without a major repair. We bought a new Toyota 4Runner back in 2003 that was made on Japan. We had a persistent problem just after we took possession that I almost forced the dealer to buy it back under the lemon law. The serpentine belt chirped badly. The belt was.replaced twice under warranty and each time the chirp returned. On the third replacement, the technician installed the belt incorrectly and the front crankshaft oil seal was pulled out. The problem was finally traced to a weak spring in the belt tensioner. Of the cars I have purchased new which includes a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass, a.1985 Ford.Tempo, a 2000 Ford Windstar, a 2003 Toyota 4Runner and a.2011 and.2017 Toyota Siennas, the vehicle that initially gave me the most trouble was the 2003 4Runner that was made in Japan. Now after the problem was finally resolved in the 4Runner, it has been fine and we still own it. Iâve purchased two more Toyota products since the 4Runner. I donât think I have a bias one way or the other for a particular brand. I need a.minivan, so that is what I buy. Mrs.Triedaq did a lot of traveling for.her job. She felt more comfortable with a 4 wheel drive vehicle for winter travel, so in winter months, she would drive the 4Runner and take the mileage allowance rather than take a vehicle from our institutionâs fleet.
Bias comes into play when youâre giving an opinion. Data that can be quantified is more accurate. I agree CR isnât the best and has flaws, but it does have raw data. JD Powers is more of a opinion survey.
Quantifiable Data.
. Number of repairs per x-thousand vehicles.
. Number of vehicles still on road.
. Number of vehicles over 100k, 200k, 300k miles.
And Iâm sure there are many others that I canât think of right now.
The J D Power 3 year results confirm the superior reliability of Japanese cars. Are they biased, too?
Bias is not just involved in opinion. It also comes into play when reviewing data. How you interpret the data is affected by your own bias as well as the people reporting the data. As @Triedaq pointed out, the CR data come from its subscribers. Those subscribers have bias as those that chose to reply to the request may be very different from those that chose not to reply. Studies have shown if you have a bad car, you tell many more people than if you have a good car. If humans are involved in any way, bias creeps in. There are ways to minimize that bias with large sample sizes and double blind studies and more but quality surveys canât really do that.
How do you define âreliabilityâ in only 3 years given that nearly every car is still under warranty? That seems like a quality measure, not a reliability measure. Bias in the definition? I donât know.
Lets look at recalls. Mercedes-Benz is the lowest at 0.41 per car sold while Toyota is twice that at 0.80. GM is between (2014 data from Forbes). Honda is 0.94. Thatâs the data.
What conclusions can we draw? That M-B makes great cars and that Honda makes bad ones? Depends on your bias. We really canât draw a conclusion since we donât know if thatâs being a conscientious manufacturer or just one thatâs bee âcaughtâ like VW (1.06 recall rate in 2014, likely way more now).
I am not arguing whether Japanese brands are better or worse than other countries brands. Given the global nature of car assembly you canât really generalize any more by country but you can generally by brands.
The list identifies the âmost reliableâ in each category, and the majority of category winners are Japanese brands, right? That all I conclude from it.
And 3 years isnât long, youâre right. My point is that this is yet another list supporting the âJapanese brands are more reliableâ claim. Iâm aware of no large-scale surveys that contradict that claim.
Speaking of large scale surveysâŠ
Cars that travel over 200K, all Japanese models except the Ford F150.
That data is 10 years out of date when you take it. Just something to think about.
Iâm sure bias comes into playâŠbut that doesnât mean theyâre conclusions are wrong.
CR uses surveysâŠbut not all are surveys.
For the first 3 years most cars are pretty reliable. People who trade every 3 years may not notice any difference between a Ford Taurus and a Toyota Camry. I donât attach a great deal of value on the J D Power ratings. The real issue is how will the car behave for 10 years or more, The life after the warranty runs out are what counts. Thatâs why Japanese cars have such a good resale value.
We also have to distinguish between reliability and longevity. The military version of the British Land Rover has average reliability but has a very long life expectancy.
In my areas we had a guy who brought a Toyota Celica from Nevada where it had been used in courier service. It now has 1.9 MILLION MILES on it and the engine is still original. So is the white paint!
The other long life Toyota I rode in was a diesel powered Corolla in Malaysia with 1,400,000 kms on it. Aside from the ratty upholstery, it ran well and the drive/owner said no internal engine work had been done.
Years ago the German Consumer Association and the Algemeine Deutsche Automobiel Club (ADAC) did a joint study as to what were the most reliable cars on German roads. The results were⊠the lowly Mazda 323 and the equally lowly Toyota Tercel. It caused a national ANGST since Germans typically lookdown on any car thatâs not German, let alone Asian!
There is an independent garage not far from here. I took my Corolla in the have the heat shield adjusted. The mechanic said as a matter of fact; " We donât get a lot of Toyotas in " .
Having said all that even Toyotas have some problems now and then. No car is totally perfect.
last summer I drove from Virginia to the Delmarva peninsula to the ocean side and driving through some rural Delaware town I spotted right-wheeled Subaru of mid-80s with USPS signage delivering mail.
I knew it was some of these imported for mail carriers in 80s, I could not imagine them to survive in service that long.
Car still had glass headlights in good shape and had quite dated paint, not sure if it was original one or not, but drove just fine as I passed it.