Most reliable vehicle

[Lonnie]

Going through year end analysis of vehicle maintenance and talking with a couple of friends that also do maintenance software we compared notes. This is not science, too many variables but the most reliable car turned out to be the most reliable mechanical and electrical by a hugh margin. It's the Toyota Prius. With data from 68 vehicles, 1st and 2nd generation cars over 5 years and 377k miles, the maintenance per mile was over 25% less than second place with 2nd through 10th place with in 5 points of each other and a big jump to 11th.

Most reliable non-diesel truck was the Tundra, also by a hugh margin, although the most popular truck with the drivers was the Ford. The most popular SUV, but not most reliable was the Chevy Surburban.

Chevy had no vehicles in the reliable category and Ford had only two. Toyota and Honda were the leaders. Everything else was in third place for reliability, but often the domestic vehicles were more popular with drivers. I'm trying to get the owners of the software to let me publish some reports but they get grumpy with I bring up the subject.

 

[Brett Miller]

Any vehicle run on Pennzoil will be reliable.

 

[H2GURU]

Lonnie,
I found this a while back, check uot the many durability links on here!

http://www.autooninfo.net/

 

[eljefino]

From that autooninfo.net:

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We note that Mr. Naylor's Non-Toyota 200,000 Mile Club has only one listing - a 215,000 mile Nissan Sentra. We also observe that after some search, no listing of a Big Three vehicle with even 200,000 miles was found.

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[brianl703]

That autooninfo.net set (1) has a terrible design and (2) just repeats what CR says.

 

[brianl703]

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We also observe that after some search, no listing of a Big Three vehicle with even 200,000 miles was found.

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Yea man, why is it that every older big three vehicle never seems to have more than 99,999.9 miles on it?

They're junk, I tell you!

 

[01rangerxl]

Quote:

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From that autooninfo.net:

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We note that Mr. Naylor's Non-Toyota 200,000 Mile Club has only one listing - a 215,000 mile Nissan Sentra. We also observe that after some search, no listing of a Big Three vehicle with even 200,000 miles was found.

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I guess they conveniently ignored the Chevy K1500 and Ford F-150 that made news for reaching over 1 million miles. Not to mention the 400,000 mile Sierra in Truck Trend and the numerous diesel trucks with seven figure mileage.

I guess they all have to be members of some obscure club to count though.

 

[Curious Kid]

As far as the "big three" not showing much in the "over 100K" standings as one put it, could it be that consumers just don't trust things will fair acceptibly, and go for new with trade-in rather than the true ability of the machine? Opinion has a lot to do with things, especially when it comes to maintenance - would someone be likely to do maintenance on something they might think in the back of their mind or am lead to believe is junk? Owners can even compensate for faults in machanical/operating issues to a degree, with or without big $$$, depending. Few end-up with a perfact relationship, no matter the subject.

 

[John_K]

Actually there are places, like allpar.com where Big 3 vehicles are listed as over 200,000 miles on them. But they are less reliable overall.

John

 

[Gary Allan]

John-K says it. There are plenty of domestics in the 200+ club ..just due to the shear numbers produced quite a few have to make it that far. That's got little to do with reliability.

What's the criteria for being "reliable"? Doesn't break down in service ..or that it doesn't need anything other then routine service?? My minivan has only left us sitting once in 14 years (my daughter gave it a mortal wounding though to be counted as a 2nd sitting) ..but lots of stuff became "dysfunctional" or troublesome and needed fixing.

 

[LouDawg]

I've had numerous domestic vehicles with well over 100K on them. (All Fords, Ranger, Tbirds, LTDs, etc...don't have much experience with GM or Chrysler.) My brother now drives my old '99 Taurus with the 3.0 Vulcan that has 200K on it and still runs good, with a few minor electrical quirks here and there is all. And his GF absolutely abuses that thing.

 

[Gary Allan]

Prior to design complexities taking hold ..most domestics only required fluid and filter changes to last a lifetime. The thing may rot out from under you ..or you might get bored to death ..but that's about it.

 

[andyd]

for me the most reliable vehicle has been my 4 bmw 528es. Bought with over 150kmiles on them, serviced almost entirely by myself. They all have minor issues, but none serious enough to require a tow truck. Preventative maintenance is the key to reliabilty.

 

[TheTanSedan]

The number of mid-size Cherokee's [built 1984-2001] with over 200,000 is great.

The problem with that info is that the vast majority of second, third and fourth or final owners will not be reporting condition or problems to a source that collects them. Not to dealers or even large aftermarket repair shops.

More than half the cars registered in the US are seven years old or older. At the US average of 15,000 miles annually (7 X 15,000 = 105,000), that means that there are one heckuva lot of owners not in any "system" beyond state registration even when adjusted for low annual miles.

 

[brianl703]

Well, that, and with an odometer that rolls over every 100K, it's easy enough to "loose track" or not even know how many miles are really on an older car. I believe my brother's old Camaro Z28 had upwards of 200K on it but who really knows for sure?

In Virginia when you title a car they want the actually odometer reading, not how many miles are on the car. If it says 16,500, even if it's really 116,500, it's supposed to say 16,500 and "exceeds mechanical limits" on the title..

..although they don't seem to care if you put the actual mileage on the title.

 

[Norm Olt]

late '60's NOVA: Almost the entire drivetrain, suspension, etc. was handed down from larger, heavier cars. From an Iron Duke with "three on the tree", various straight six's, small block to big block, Powerglide to TurboHydramatic, and you name the rear end!

Too bad about the paint, though...

 

[H2GURU]

That web site I linked to seems to be tilted towards imports, but "piggy-backing" on Gary's post, the shear numbers would suggest that if domestics were of reasonable quality, they would in fact have many more listed? Toyota did not have market share in 1985 like they command now, yet they certanly lead that listing . On a percentage basis, the numbers are stagering. Perhaps it is ok to drive a 15 year old Corolla whereas if you drive a 5 year old domestic you appear "poor" to your neighbors? I think in years past the owners manual for an import was certainly more detailed than domestics and I'm wondering if the added maintenance aids in longevity? On a side note, one of my former co-workers would visibly flog his vehicles (Hondas)un-mercifully and they never broke down.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/J...-12-22-11-30-50

 

[brianl703]

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Perhaps it is ok to drive a 15 year old Corolla whereas if you drive a 5 year old domestic you appear "poor" to your neighbors?

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I think that may be a regional thing. I always see domestic vehicles whenever I drive the Indiana/Ohio Turnpikes that have long since disappeared from the roads of Northern Virginia[where having an ARM loan for a house you can't afford is some sort of status symbol]. A couple of years ago I saw a Ford Tempo on the Ohio Turnpike, and I think I saw a Dodge Omni too. I haven't seen either of those vehicles around here for years.

My mechanic concurs--he says that even the high school and college students around here wouldn't be caught dead driving a Dodge Omni, even though (in his experience) they are reliable, cheap cars.

And with that said, I sort of wish I still had mine.

 

[Gary Allan]

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Perhaps it is ok to drive a 15 year old Corolla whereas if you drive a 5 year old domestic you appear "poor" to your neighbors?

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Domestics have always been far more "passe~". Although some asian imports were from outer space in terms of oddity (1st Gen Subarus come to mind)..you can't ignore that we've had some things from generic this and that ..to just plain boring. If you squint real hard at an AMC Hornet hatchback ..you see an over weight 240Z. We made the piece of junk ..they made a work of art. Either could have been built by either manufacturer ..yet our homey grown design engineers favored one path over another. One suggested reason was that most design engineers came from the midwest where "cruisers" were favored.

If you truly think about it, we've really had nothing aside from ease of owning and brute power to lay claim to fame. The ride has always been lousy ..the road feel lousy ..the dash layouts were usually boring and awkward ....they were always behind consumer demand by about 5 years or more. My 1975 Chevy pickup, IIRC, couldn't even get a stereo until you hit the Siverado level (again, IIRC) and an AM-FM was a real recent option.

They would also do some really odd stuff. For example, you could not get a 1969 F series, IIRC, with bucket seats with a 390 engine/4speed/positraction. Change any of the other elements (seat, engine, trans, rear) and you could have any/all of the others.