That is definitely one, but I think that the discussion was oriented toward passenger cars that are driven on public roads.
He said “Right” in front of the rear wheels. Maybe a better word would be “immediately”.

The Ford 5.0 has a spray in liner and much like the Vega they drink oil
One pint added in twelve years and 65,000 miles is a lot of oil? What am I doing wrong?

One pint added in twelve years and 65,000 miles is a lot of oil? What am I doing wrong?
Your trying to be a smart alec, I bet the people that have 2018 to 2020 5.0 oil drinking engines don’t think its very funny.
I work with a guy that doesn’t think its very funny, he had the TSB preformed where they put a longer dipstick in and he wasn’t laughing.
I don’t think your older 5.0 has the spray in liners, if it dies then good for you, it effects 2018 to 2020 engines.
It isn’t the spray in liners tbat caused the oil issues. The liners are plasma sprayed iron that performs better than cast in sleeves.
The root cause were low tension rings.
My 21 Mustang has spray in liners and uses virtually no oil with 40K on it. A track day consumed all of 1/2 pint of oil with unknown formulation. My 10 quarts of full synthetic are in the garage waiting to be swapped in.
Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it? Viewed from 2025, the Corolla should have won, with maybe the Pinto #2, then the VW, then the Gremlin and last a tie for awfulness between the Vega and the Simca/ In the Vega’s defense, it was the prettiest of the lot.
Probably partially why I don’t give a rip anymore about what the CR reports say, or motor trend etc.
C and D had a their criteria, none of which included reliability. The Vega was a good small car when new. I have no problem with their ratings.

C and D had a their criteria, none of which included reliability.
I was gonna say, unless the wheels or fender etc falls off during testing, isn’t it kinda hard to test long term reliability of a brand new car?? lol
rhetorical question…
The only time I would care what C&D or MT etc have to say is when they talking about how fast and or how well a car handles over normal cars…
Me going with Bing. I stopped reading Consumer Reports , Car and Driver and Moter Trend years ago .
I was car shopping back in 1971. I tried out a Vega. It had a 4 speed manual transmission.
It was fun to drive, but the fit and finish of the Vega wasn’t great. I then road tested a 1968 Toyota Corolla. The quality of assembly of the Corolla was much better than the Vega, but the Corolla I tested had a 2 speed automatic transmission. The performance of that Corolla was sluggish and left a lot to be desired. I kept the 1961 Corvair I was driving

The quality of assembly of the Corolla was much better than the Vega
Quite a few years ago, a friend of mine needed to replace her '80s Buick Century. I urged her to look at the Honda Civic and she brought her boyfriend–who worked for GM–with her. When the boyfriend closely examined the Civic, he told her, “This is made like a Swiss watch, compared to the junk that we sell”.
She bought a Civic, and that turned her into a loyal Honda customer for the rest of her life.
When I’m looking for a new car I’ll read those sources and others. Except for CR, I get a feel for how the tester likes the things that can be immediately evaluated. CR adds past reliability of their subscribers. After I do that, I’ll produce a narrow list of cars and test drive them. Someone else’s test drives are data points for consideration.
Yes at some point they got serious about building for the us market. Some of us remember though in days of old, fenders flopping in the breeze.

C and D had a their criteria, none of which included reliability. The Vega was a good small car when new. I have no problem with their ratings.
C and D has for quite awhile run 40,000 mile tests. So they try to discover the weak points. Some (Toyotas) go the entire test with out any unscheduled dealer visits. And other brands, they have to head to the dealer quite a few times, and they will tell you that. I still get C&D even though they only publish 6 times a year now. All the printed media is under pressure from the instant internet.
I’m sorry, but 40K is nothing, a walk in the park, I want to know about 100-200K reliability… lol
However, if other than recalls and maintenance it is making trips to the dealer, well that is NOT a good sign for the 200K run either…

I’m sorry, but 40K is nothing, a walk in the park, I want to know about 100-200K reliability
Nowadays, most of C&D’s test vehicles make it to the end of their 40k test with flying colors, but not all of them. This Kia began having engine problems at 4k miles, and its other problems included the trans, which was replaced–under warranty–with a refurbished unit, but there were lots of other problems during their 40k mile test. Based on their 40k experience, I doubt that this sample would make it to anywhere near 200k miles:
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a39814400/2022-kia-sorento-sx-reliability-maintenance/

C and D has for quite awhile run 40,000 mile tests.
I got C and D for years (decades) but quit about 10 years ago. I think those 40k tests came along some time after the ‘71 review. I enjoyed their comparison tests the most, and reliability wasn’t a factor in how they ranked the cars. The went to a more quantitative method, with points assigned to various factors. I complained to them that price ended up being the controlling factor in many tests, but shouldn’t be included at all. I want to know which car is the best, not best for a price. It’s up to me what I can afford.

I’m sorry, but 40K is nothing, a walk in the park, I want to know about 100-200K reliability… lol
Of course C&D can’t keep a car that long but at least they’re trying!
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