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Who makes the most reliable new cars?

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Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#671

Post by jabl »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #531
lightedman wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"minor repairs are rarely more than $100" 2005 9-3 Linear here. I wish minor repairs were that cheap. Wait until you need your water pump replaced ;) Get ready to squick hard at the required labor charges (water pump is integral to the engine IIRC, requiring the engine to be pulled.) Right now I need new spark plugs, injectors, and a turbo replaced, and a grounding strap issue somewhere I haven't been able to isolate…

Hello fellow sabers. I wouldn't trade my 88 900T for anything. Its just about to crank over 340K

Well, that's a "real" Saab, the newer ones are just built on the GM standard platform with a bit of Saabish styling.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#672

Post by hintymad »

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…

One thing that Japanese did really well is keeping their language identity. In particular, they don’t translate their words. They give us gyoza instead of dumplings. They give us ramen instead of some lame-ass noodle. They give us Sudoku instead of number puzzles. So much so that Japanese words have some kind of zen-like connotation to many people. In contrast, mainland Chinese always translate words to English. Ironically, gyoza is literally Chinese word 饺子，and Ramen is really the Chinese word 拉面。

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#673

Post by mortify »

yaomtc wrote: post #231
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…

> car safety has drastically improved Safety between cars, and within cars, has improved. However, due to the increasing size of the average vehicle on the road, among other factors, car safety for pedestrians/cyclists has decreased. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184034017/us-pedestrian-deat...

People always drive, not to within certain parameters of the law, but to within their risk tolerance. As cars become more safe, the risk factor reduces which allow people to increase risky behavior.

If you want people to drive better, don't put airbags in their steering wheel, put a 6" metal spike pointed at their chest.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#674

Post by twothamendment »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #631
HPsquared wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also headlights are simply higher on average than they used to be (larger vehicles). Very noticeable if you drive a low car. Yet another "arms race" dynamic.

99% of it is people not adjusting the pitch of their headlights or turning on their brights and leaving them on. I had a truck and it was fine, because I cared enough to watch a 5 minute video on how to adjust the angle after a new install of bulbs

We have a newer Subaru and were getting flashed like it was Mardi Gras. I started looking into adjusting the lights and found several places talking about how the Subarus are to high right from the dealer and their service department. That was enough to convince me to just do it.

I don't have a level spot with the recommended distance so we went with some tape on the garage door as a reference. We got them a tad low the first time and raised them up a bit. I can still see and apparently everyone else can too because nobody is flashing their lights at us.

Our other vehicle is a 2014 3/4 ton Ram pickup. Nobody ever flashes me in it.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#675

Post by twothamendment »

katbyte wrote: post #547
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing old style headlight bulbs with LEDs in housings not designed for them is an increasing problem too, making driving at night often something that is best done with a pair of sunglasses.

Some new vehicles come way to bright too, the absolute worst for this seem to be teslas and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was poor qa on bulb alignment

Subaru has theirs adjusted too high from the factory. They are nice, bright lights, but now that I adjusted them down nobody flashes their brights at me.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#676

Post by paiute »

mint2 wrote: post #616
pockybum522 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Started during the pandemic? My friend, I think you just might not remember how terribly people drove pre-pandemic as well.

No, it’s true. People started driving like they were fleeing zombies during the pandemic, and the behaviors stuck. With the roads deserted people went faster and more carelessly. When things recovered and roads got crowded they didn’t tone their driving back down. I do insurance things. It’s well known in the field.

I suspect vision zero policy and phones are also major contributors. Traffic Engineers across the country are setting traffic lights to reduce the flow of traffic to 20mph without changing the actual speed limit. It’s making people crazy.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#677

Post by seanmcdirmid »

hintymad wrote: post #672
mkii wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One thing that Japanese did really well is keeping their language identity. In particular, they don’t translate their words. They give us gyoza instead of dumplings. They give us ramen instead of some lame-ass noodle. They give us Sudoku instead of number puzzles. So much so that Japanese words have some kind of zen-like connotation to many people. In contrast, mainland Chinese always translate words to English. Iron…

Japanese has a lot of loan words from Chinese, which isn’t surprising. They aren’t even written in katakana. Japanese are more likely to adopt phonetic translation of new things (like computer) whereas Chinese will make a new word diannao (electric brain). Of course Chinese not having an auxiliary phonetic writing system (unlike Japanese or Korean) makes this necessary, although that’s probably by design (not completely true, some non-Chinese languages use Chinese as a phonetic writing system!).

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#678

Post by wizee »

michalf6 wrote: post #54

BMW got much better since the switch to B series engines, N series era was horrible. Timing chains between the engine and gearbox are a pain point though, they need to be replaced with mileage.

The B58 and B48 are quite impeccably good engines, both in terms of reliability and also performance/response. I had an excellent experience with my B58-powered M240i. I've also never heard anyone needing to do anything in practice with timing chains on these engines, even at high mileage. It seems the whole car would be worn out before the timing chain wears out, provided you use decent quality oil and don't neglect oil changes.

The older N52 engine is also very solid and reliable, my high mileage 2006 330i (E90) has been rock solid reliable in its powertrain.

My mechanic told me the N20 engine is terrible though, he has encountered an absurd number of them failing. The N54 is solid enough mechanically, though they get HPFP issues and need occasional cleaning of soot/gunk from valves.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#680

Post by Racing0461 »

yaomtc wrote: post #231
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…

> car safety has drastically improved Safety between cars, and within cars, has improved. However, due to the increasing size of the average vehicle on the road, among other factors, car safety for pedestrians/cyclists has decreased. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184034017/us-pedestrian-deat...

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