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Who makes the most reliable new cars?

consumerreports.org

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#101
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely Toyota didn't win "most avoided", but rather most recommended? But same re. infotainment. I have a suction cup MagSafe charging mount for my 2004 4Runner and I patched a bluetooth receiver into the stock head unit. Nothing better than that glorious amber glow when driving late at night. LCD's are blinding by comparison. Plus this way I don't ever have to enter the iPhone's crippled CarPlay navigation mode, or…

Yes, they won most recommended, sorry. I spent a while looking for the thread, but can't find it. Here's a very similar one, though, which was in AskReddit vs AskMechanics. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jbw8i7/mechanics... Interestingly, on the OP link, they don't list the Tacoma, notoriously one of the most reliable vehicles.

Weird that consumer reports would exclude one of the top selling Toyota vehicles in the US.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#102

I wonder if hybrid being more reliable than gasoline cars is simply a function of most of those being Toyota, versus any effect stemming from the car being Hybrid.

Fwiw eCVTs are not at all like normal ones, frankly they are more simple than most other transmission types

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#103
post #7

I don't see how 'Tesla' is not top of the list here. For the 'Trouble Areas' I suspected they're normalizing over the 'length of ownership' which would bias the scores towards older car companies.

> don't see how 'Tesla' is not top of the list here Tesla owners love their cars. This means they tend to overlook issues others might find unacceptable. If my car just refused to drive until I restarted it a few times, that would be a catastrophic fuckup. But I’ve seen Tesla owners shrug that away. Which is fine! There have always been legendary cars with notorious maintenance issues. But base reliability matters to…

Is it fine though? For people to use machines that are known to put others in danger? I'm referring to "FSD" doing absolutely bullshit things like not detecting objects in the way.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#104

Lexus is toyota. Accura is honda. So it’s really like: 1. Toyota 2. Mini 3. Honda 4. Subaru 5. Mazda Congratulations Japan.

I’ve been driving my Toyota Tacoma for 22 years now and currently at 245k miles (with some off-roading thrown in there). With regular upkeep, it’s amazing how much abuse these can take and still run fine. I haven’t had any major problems. My next car will definitely be a Toyota.

I'll be disappointed if I don't get half-a-million miles out of my '01 Tacoma. The major-est piece of equipment I've had to replace was the power steering pump, and the biggest PITA was the timing belt, which didn't need to be replaced at the time, but I did it for preventative maintenance. 326k miles.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#105

Does this account for driving habits? I’ve just purchased a Subaru WRX, and I can’t fight the feeling that the reliability score is in some way influenced by the hoards of idiots that flock to this car for its tuning and hooning potential.

Yeah there’s certainly a temptation there if you’re into working in cars. Alongside your tuning/hooning remark - some cars certainly attract a particular kind of audience, although if it was really hoards, they would have probably released an STI variant for the new body :(

> they would have probably released an STI variant for the new body :(

Pow, right in the feels :’)

But in reality, I suspect this has more to do with the following two things:

1. The STi package has always had abysmal fuel economy, and I believe there are regulations that enforce an average fuel economy across an entire manufacturers fleet

2. Many (most?) of the modders and hooners are put off by the price. In fact, most aren’t really interested in a track car, but rather in a cheap, fast box to drag race between traffic lights.

P.s. the new BRZ might also be stealing a bit of the market, despite the reverse-Zoolander issue it faces with oil pressure…

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#106
Very weird that Volvo Cars, from the land of Spotify and all the other unicorns, has such huge problems with reliability (they consistently rank one of the lowest in the reliability due to infotainment/computer problems). They must be doing something really wrong. All that talent in Sweden and they can't make it stable? The stock has been tanking massively for a while now. Anyone knows whats up? Did they outsource their software/platform to third world countries?

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#107

I wonder if hybrid being more reliable than gasoline cars is simply a function of most of those being Toyota, versus any effect stemming from the car being Hybrid.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a component. But I would be surprised if that’s a primary reason.

There’s just a lot more to go wrong with an ICE vehicle. You need oil and regular oil changes. A radiator, tubing, and antifreeze. An alternator. A carburetor and a catalytic converter. Timing belts. A exhaust system. None of this (as far as I know, IANAM) is needed for an electric vehicle.

A disproportionate amount of what’s under the hood of an ICE has to do with managing the consequences of the “C” component of that acronym (heat, combustion gases, electricity generation, lubrication, carbon deposits).

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#108

The paradox is that hybrids have MORE potential trouble areas than ICE but less reported trouble. All hail McLuhan.

> The paradox is that hybrids have MORE potential trouble areas than ICE but less reported trouble.

> All hail McLuhan.

That doesn't seem paradoxical, I'd never expect that just counting potential trouble areas is the right thing, things can be made more reliable by addition. Make a laptop without a battery and I'm gonna report a lot of problems stemming from sudden power loss. Put a battery in, that's a new potential trouble area, but even if I still use it plugged in exclusively, I'm gonna report fewer problems since I'll never have sudden power loss and have no problems downstream of that.

Maybe that's not the case with hybrids? I don't know, but it seems like it could be - any time some of the load is taken off some of the most physical components, the ICE and the brakes, it could improve reliability even though the systems taking the load off can then also have problems.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#109

Very weird that Volvo Cars, from the land of Spotify and all the other unicorns, has such huge problems with reliability (they consistently rank one of the lowest in the reliability due to infotainment/computer problems). They must be doing something really wrong. All that talent in Sweden and they can't make it stable? The stock has been tanking massively for a while now. Anyone knows whats up? Did they outsource th…

Not sure if this plays a role, but they are owned by a Chinese holding company, so no longer 100% Scandinavian.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#110
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you expect them on higher or lower rank?

Given the media reports about the cars quality, I would expect them to be much lower. Then again, I don't know anything about cars.

Media reports are sadly about as reliable as that story from uncle Bob.
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