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Who makes the most reliable new cars?

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Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#251

Post by idontwantthis »

codazoda wrote: post #242
bluemax wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I hate to admit it, but Kia got this right. I own 3 Kia’s and they all have various problems, including really big problems, but this is an area they got right. On my daily driver, the Kia Niro, it has a battery button that instantly charges the 12v from the HEV battery. I’ve only needed it once, when I left a light on camping, but it was like magic.

What big problems have you had? I’m considering a Niro phev.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#252

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

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…

I bought a 2004 corolla off the lot and my experience has been the same.

legitimately the only major repair I've ever needed is to replace the oil pan and that was my fault. runs like a champ, I literally just got back from driving it about 10 minutes ago.

It looks ugly as sin as over the years people have thrown themselves at the vehicle, including a line down the passenger side where a fedex semi took a left turn too sharply, but it runs beautifully. Part of that is maintenance, of course, but if you treat'em well they'll treat you well.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#253

Post by mplewis »

mkii wrote: post #225
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…

Indeed! I recently learned about an aspect of this which is named and tied to national brand strategy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#254

Post by talldatethrow »

ethbr1 wrote: post #235
kyleblarson wrote: post #227

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.

I drove a Tacoma that started at 125k miles with a leaking cylinder and a torn CV joint boot. Kept waiting for something to stop working and need fixing... 70k+ miles later, I was still driving and waiting.

If you had a torn cv boot, it was a 4x4. The cv doesn't actually transmit any power when you're in 2 wheel drive mode. So unless you did many miles in 4x4 after the torn cv boot, you wouldn't really ever experience a problem with it. That's very different than a FWD car with a torn boot.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#255

Post by jacquesm »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #175
bluemax wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Happened to my wife's ex-Toyota CHR hybrid (not plug-in hybrid) after 5 weeks of vacation. I hooked a CTEK charger to it for 8 to 12 hours and all was good again. I didn't leave the car on the CTEK charger for five weeks because it was parked outside and not at our place. Otherwise CTEK chargers are really nice. Certain car brands like Porsche while sell you a "Porsche charger" for two or three times the price but it…

I have a VW bus that doesn't see a lot of use and with a bit of fiddling it was easy enough to run a (fused) connector to just behind the grill with a little rubber lid to make it waterproof. That allows me to plug in a trickle charger without having to open the hood. That little trick has saved me multiple batteries already.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#256

Post by jancsika »

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!

> As someone who usually buys ~10 year old cars and drives them into the ground I'm much more interested in long term reliability.

That's a much simpler list:

1: Toyota Corolla

2 to end: you're not really serious about running it into the ground. :)

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#257

Post by ronnier »

303uru wrote: post #140
sertbdfgbnfgsd wrote: post #20

Shocking that Tesla is middle of the table.

As a Tesla owner I was surprised they're that low. I know probably 30 owners and haven't heard of any maintenance outside of tires and a few panel gaps at delivery.

A lot of it is likely software update that they call "recalls" etc. But just guessing. I have two and they are very reliable.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#258

Post by booleandilemma »

paxys wrote: post #205
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.

You are right, research involving millions of data points gathered from 330K vehicles over the course of a year is completely wrong because you saw a couple of broken BMWs on the road on your way to work.

Think of how terrible life would be if we couldn't share our anecdotes, if we couldn't talk about things we've seen that go against what the experts have told us to believe.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#259

Post by jacquesm »

Already__Taken wrote: post #173
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.

That's not counting just how many working X7 and X5's you passed.

No, by how many working X7's and X5's they were passed.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#260

Post by whatever1 »

paxys wrote: post #205
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.

You are right, research involving millions of data points gathered from 330K vehicles over the course of a year is completely wrong because you saw a couple of broken BMWs on the road on your way to work.

I mean you can tell me that the dice is fair but if I get 100 times in a row 6, I will start having some doubt.
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