Car complaints is useful for comparing different years of a given car, not so much different cars.
George might find this to be instructive. CR’s rating on the 2013 Fiat 500 (the last year for which they had a large enough sample to calculate a reliability rating) was pretty dismal:
Fiat 500
RELIABILITY VERDICT
1 / 5
The 2013 Lexus LS was rated as follows:
Overall Reliability
5 / 5
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George is not going to be influenced by that rating because he will claim it did not apply to the way he thinks vehicles should be equipped. But when he makes the trip to Las Vagas he rents a modern vehicle that has Gadgets .
@George_San_Jose1 does NOT go to Las Vegas. He lives in San Jose and would go to Reno. Much closer. The drive might be more pleasant in his Corolla than his pickup though. 
[quote=“jtsanders, post:45, topic:190321”] He lives in San Jose and would go to Reno. Much closer. The drive might be more pleasant in his Corolla
[/quote]
I hope that his manual-crank windows still work, because I assume that his Corolla is sans A/C.
Back on 1962 when I was buying a car, the 1955 Pontiac had a good repair record while the 1955 and 1956 Mercurys had a poor repair record according to Consumer Reports. I bought a 1955 Pontiac and it was a disaster. In 1955, the Pontiac got a newly designed V8 engine, while the Mercury had a Ford engine that had been introduced in 1954. Parts for this engine were more readily available for this engine than the Pontiac V8 engine and mechanics had more experience with the Ford engines. For example, I had problems with the 1955 Pontiac with oil getting to the rocker arms. The Ford engines also had that problem, but a kit was available that bypassed the oil passages in the block and got oil to the rocker arms.
As I remember, the 1955 Cadillac had a better repair record than the 1955 Ford according to Consumer Reports. However, the parts availability was much better for the Ford and independent shops had no doubt seen more Fords than Cadillacs.
In his book, “What You Should Know About Cars” by Tom McCahill, published in the early 1960s, McCahill had a friend that purchased a new Cadillac and another friend that purchased a new Volkswagen Beetle. Four years after their purchases, each friend was selling their cars. The Cadillac and the VW were both in top condition and had gone about the same number of miles. Both the Cadillac and VW were worth the same. amount as used cars even though the Cadillac cost over three times as much as the VW when new. Even though Cadillacs back then had a good repair record, the VW was cheaper to maintain.
My point is that fewer problems do not mean a car is cheaper to maintain. I had a Ford Maverick some. years back. After market parts were plentiful and mechanics knew tricks to solve problems. For example. the bushings in the front suspension were “permanently” lubricated. When. these bushings became noisy, rather than disassemble the front suspension, the mechanic would cut a hole on the inner fender liner, install a grease fitting and the problem was solved.
Now there were 1971 cars manufactured that had fewer problems than the 1971 Ford Maverick, but the Maverick was cheaper to maintain.
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Try truedelta.com.
Unlike all kinds of jd power[less] and consumer reports, it lists REAL owner’s experiences.
I don’t see how that’s different than CR. I wonder which has the larger number of car owners submitting surveys/reviews.
edit - CR got 300,000 surveys returned last year, True Delta has about 100,000 members. So it looks like CR has the bigger base to use for its analyses.
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I agree that they report data without alteration and they even tell you how they create the 5 rating levels. It seems to me though that that they introduced something other than the Regal data to rate it lower that the Camry in their overall rating. I’m thinking sort of a good will rating for past performance with respect to the Camry. I don’t think they intentionally downgraded the Regal just because it was a Buick but the data alone didn’t justify the overall rating difference.
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But which configuration of the Fiat 500 did they test? The question posed is how important is a car’s design complexity in predicting its reliability? To assess that using the Fiat 500 & Lexus LS as test cases, we need the reliability test reports on the base model 500 configured w/smaller non-turbo engine, no options, and 5 speed manual transmission.
The windows continue to work like new. The problem is California politicians won’t allow me to drive the Corolla to Reno or anywhere else.
You are prohibited from driving to Reno?
Or, is it that your personal preferances keep you from driving in anything more than primarily local areas? Are you preventaged by local/state/federal regulations, or is it your personal preferances that prevent you from driving?
Nothing to do w/Reno. Corolla lacks current registration sticker on license plate b/c of my own Covid worries; concerned I might catch Covid during state-required treadmill emissions testing. Calif politicos should have made reasonable accommodations imo by modifying emissions testing procedure for elderly owners, but for unexplained reasons, refused. Covid rates now low enough I plan to re-activate registration.
Maybe you have a friend or relative that would do you a solid and take your Corolla for the treadmill test. You could go along and wait outside if you like.
Thanks. But I wouldn’t ask a friend or relative for fear they would be the ones who’d contract Covid. If anybody is going to catch Covid from emissions testing, I prefer it be me. When first dealing with this, I said I’d allow one of the local politician’s office assistants do it for me, but they all refused … lol … Covid is now at record low levels, so I plan to take Corolla in for emissions testing as soon as I buy & install the tune-up parts & get the necessary paperwork together. Corolla is currently uninsured, so I have to get insurance re-instated first. Insurance company should be happy to oblige, they have been deprived of the premium revenue for 3+ years.
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Hmm…I have the '96 and '99 CR auto issues, and they both show the Regal as less reliable than the Camry, both on the detail listings and the overall reliability scores.
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Two of my co-workers drive Fiat 500 Abarth with turbocharged engines, they have earned enough money repairing Lexus LS460s to buy extra Fiats if they wanted.
The LS460 might look good in surveys but they have expensive problems and there is always one in the shop. Premature suspension bushing failure on 2007-2009 LS460s, at least $5000 to repair. Internal leaks in the ABS hydraulic actuator, warranty extension has expired for most cars, $4000.
Every week I see a technician resealing the engine valley coolant plate, 8 hours labor. 2007-2012 are too old for surveys.
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“Which Cars Have the Most Problems?”
Answer: The cars that are not properly maintained.
As far as consumer reports, prejudice may enter into surveys because of brand loyalty.
It has been a long time since I read a CR. When I subscribed in the 80s there did seem to be have a positive bias towards Pacific rim vehicles in CR’s comparison reviews.
The last time I read a review was when I purchased new a 2001 Ranger. CR stated the 4.0 engine was not worth the price over the 3.0, boy were they wrong. I only test drove the 3.0 I purchased. A few years later I purchased an Explorer 4X4 with the same 4.0 offered in the Ranger, increased performance was significant.
The positive about CR is no advertisers, therefore not influenced by advertising revenue.
Note, I do have a bias in favor of Ford. Traded a troubled prone 84 Dodge (purchased new) on an 84 T-Bird. Have purchased nothing but Fords since then, all have been trouble free. Did I need repairs, yes.. T-Bird HVAC blower failed after a 100,000 miles. Mustang radiator failed at 125,000 miles.
I am fortunate in have an excellent Ford dealership four miles from my house.
I would like a Miata, but the only dealership in my area has a poor reputation.
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When I started this thread I was struck by the fact that there were very few mentions of Miata problems when I did searches. Lots of favorable comments, but not much about repair issues. Like many of you I’m a bit suspicious of broad form “ratings” because of all the issues you raised, and I was looking for some measure that reflected opinions from people who didn’t they were rating a car.
You don’t hear much about the Pontiac Fiero either but we all know how they turned out… lol
I was blown away by the fact they offer lift kits for the Miata though, not a fan of the little beater but lifting it with aggressive AT tires and going off roading with it is pretty cool…