Are we stuck with JD Power’s Vehicle Dependability Survery and the 5-year CR?

[alanbrenton]

Just wondering if there any other credible sources of information though I doubt it will have the breadth of the JD Power's study. There seems to be the Consumer Reports 5-year reliability study but not sure how they conduct their survey when by the fifth year, vehicle ownership may have changed.

Found this article: The Truth About JD Power’s 2010 Vehicle Dependability Survey

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...bility-survey/

[gilboman]

Just wondering if there any other credible sources of information though I doubt it will have the breadth of the JD Power's study. There seems to be the Consumer Reports 5-year reliability study but not sure how they conduct their survey when by the fifth year, vehicle ownership may have changed.

Found this article: The Truth About JD Power’s 2010 Vehicle Dependability Survey

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...bility-survey/

That article is useless because JD Power measures 1st and 3rd year of ownership..anything longer, you have to infer from that. If a car is reliable during 1st year, and after 3 years. What makes it change so much in years 4 and 5 or beyond? Does Toyota/Lexus design their cars to last great the first 3 years and self destruct after and VW design theirs to do horribly in first 3 and since most stuff has been replaced in first 3 years, next 3 are great? lol

While no indicator is perfect, JD Powers is not bad and is much more in depth in terms of collecting responses than CR.

In the end, these studies capture trends and probabilities, your own experience will/may vary. Since you could be that lucky 1 in 100 VW owner who has no problems or that 1 in 100 Toyota owner with lots of problems. But I'll still rather believe in science and math and choose probability of better reliability if I cared.

I don't care about reliability so I drive a VW

[Rehan]

http://www.truedelta.com/ is the Fuelly of car reliability reports.

For example:
http://www.truedelta.com/Volkswagen-...ty-282/vs-TL-5

If you sign up to the site (and thereby contribute your own experiences too), you can see more of the data.

[alanbrenton]

That article is useless because JD Power measures 1st and 3rd year of ownership..anything longer, you have to infer from that. If a car is reliable during 1st year, and after 3 years. What makes it change so much in years 4 and 5 or beyond? Does Toyota/Lexus design their cars to last great the first 3 years and self destruct after and VW design theirs to do horribly in first 3 and since most stuff has been replaced in first 3 years, next 3 are great? lol

While no indicator is perfect, JD Powers is not bad and is much more in depth in terms of collecting responses than CR.

In the end, these studies capture trends and probabilities, your own experience will/may vary. Since you could be that lucky 1 in 100 VW owner who has no problems or that 1 in 100 Toyota owner with lots of problems. But I'll still rather believe in science and math and choose probability of better reliability if I cared.

I don't care about reliability so I drive a VW

Good point. There's a big difference between complaints within or outside the warranty period (3 years for non-luxury cars and Korean cars) though. I wouldn't even express my dissatisfaction on the JD Power's survey if the repair is performed free-of-charge during the the warranty period unless it took the dealership countless times (equals countless dealership visits) to fix the issue at hand.