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Who makes the most reliable new cars?

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Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#221

Post by defrim »

deng wrote: post #46

What a disaster for VW and Mercedes, but it pretty much confirms what everyone here in Germany is saying: reliability has gone downhill, with exception of BMW and Porsche (but it'll cost you), whereas Japan is at the top for ages, with South Korea (Kia, Hyundai) providing a good, cheaper alternative.

Something that not a lot of people are mentioning is that north american made VAG (vw, audi, etc) cars are made in factories that have shown much less reliability. Everybody in Europe praises VW for how affordable and reliable they are (since they're made in-house in Germany for the most part) - excluding the 2009-2014 years since they had quite a bad Golf line in terms of reliability

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#222

Post by soganess »

whatever1 wrote: post #171

No way BMW is that high. I literally saw the past 2-3 weeks two X7s and an X5 stranded on the highway, on my way to work. I remember because I was joking yesterday with my partner that we should never buy a Beamer.

Yet, you didn't bat at eye at Mini... the wholly owned Bavarian budget brand.

That said, as an owner of all three German fancy-pants brands and a meh shade-tree mechanic, I'm also really surprised by how high the BMW family is.

Times they are a changing I guess.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#223

Post by unfocused »

willis936 wrote: post #208
omginternets wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very possibly. Still not sure what to make of these rankings though…

The message is clear: steer clear of Subaru if you want a reliable engine.

Would you say this is still true? I’m about to receive the 2023 Subaru Forester. It seems like it has good reliability from all the reviews.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#224

Post by nonameiguess »

laurencerowe wrote: post #199

Note that these stats only account for reliability in the first three years: > Then the brand reliability score was calculated by averaging results from 2021 to 2023. As someone who usually buys ~10 year old cars and drives them into the ground I'm much more interested in long term reliability. It may correlate but these stats are not that!

It's chronologically impossible to rank the best long-term reliability of new cars. At best, you can rank who made the most reliable new cars 10 years ago, which isn't helping anyone trying to buy new cars now. As someone who usually buys 10 year old cars, an article about the reliability of new cars is clearly not aimed at you.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#225

Post by mkii »

hintymad wrote: post #181

Toyota is amazing for making reliable cars but writing truly shitty code. IIRC, a lawsuit a few years ago about Toyota's faulty brake system revealed that Toyota engineers cramped tens of thousands of lines in a single file and the lines freely update hundreds of global variables. It's also interesting that Japanese companies follow ISO this and CMM that yet they develop slowly and produce shitty software services ev…

Is it truly mysterious though? I find it interesting whenever HN has a strong fascination with all things related to "Japanese-ness". For example, there have been links to wikipedia pages of some Japanese term, and it will make front page with comments. I can't think of any other nation that has this kind of cultural representation on here.

And yet, the myth of Japanese "uniqueness" is largely the product of Japanese national propaganda, serving many useful purposes for the state, for example increasing tourism and limiting permanent immigration. I find it quite fascinating in modern times this propaganda still lives on strongly throughout the world, as people say "things are so different in Japan."

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#226

Post by rvbissell »

sharkweek wrote: post #213

My 3rd Gen Toyota 4Runner is old enough to drink and outside of routine maintenance requires almost no thought. "It's time to get a new car" given that car safety has drastically improved and I have two younger kids in that thing a few times a week but I'm honestly having a really hard time giving it up, something so reliable and plainly functional. New cars with all their computers and smart technology only look lik…

3rd gen is best gen

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#227

Post by kyleblarson »

I have had 5 Toyota trucks and only replace them because I get antsy every few years for the newest thing. Never had a single problem with one and my current 19 taco at 70k miles just feels like a break in period. Each time the trade is is quite close to what I paid for it. Have been looking at getting a late 80's 4runner as a fun second rig and don't anticipate any issues with that either.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#228

Post by mulmen »

bluemax wrote: post #154
Tactical45 wrote: post #53

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.

My Toyota hybrid reliably does not start after 4 weeks not driving. The 12 volt (1 year old) battery is drained too much after such a period of inactivity. I was not expecting this from Toyota, pretty disappointing.

This is true of basically every car ever. Lead acid batteries can’t maintain a charge forever. Get a battery tender if you aren’t going to drive for long periods of time. If you only drive once a month do you even need to own a car? Just rent/uber when you occasionally need a car.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#229

Post by stefan_ »

hintymad wrote: post #181

Toyota is amazing for making reliable cars but writing truly shitty code. IIRC, a lawsuit a few years ago about Toyota's faulty brake system revealed that Toyota engineers cramped tens of thousands of lines in a single file and the lines freely update hundreds of global variables. It's also interesting that Japanese companies follow ISO this and CMM that yet they develop slowly and produce shitty software services ev…

Yes, a curious lawsuit that was, it seems the software bugs were discriminating against the elderly and the otherwise unaware. The darnedest thing.

(Ironically you can look at say Bosch ECUs and will find much the same: thousands of global variables and lots of "odd" code, but that's because its generated from a dataflow language).

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#230

Post by AmVess »

sharkweek wrote: post #213

My 3rd Gen Toyota 4Runner is old enough to drink and outside of routine maintenance requires almost no thought. "It's time to get a new car" given that car safety has drastically improved and I have two younger kids in that thing a few times a week but I'm honestly having a really hard time giving it up, something so reliable and plainly functional. New cars with all their computers and smart technology only look lik…

Keep the 4Runner and buy something new for a family hauler.

New vehicles are much safer from a structural standpoint than older ones. Modern high strength steels form the safety cage of the vehicle, and greatly reduce the risk of injury in offset frontal impacts, side impacts, and rear impacts.

And then you have the multitudes of air bags.

Finally, the various electronic gizmos that further reduce risk of injury.

The presence of high strength steels alone warrants a new vehicle purchase. Vehicles are disposable, people are not.

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