TrueDelta Updates Car Reliability Survey

psarhjinian, Did you look at the survey end date (12/31/09)? This survey data before the pedal shim and brake recalls. It will be interesting to see the Toyota data in the August 2010 survey.

Recalls aren't included in the stats as long as they're proactive--fix a problem that hasn't happened yet. No need to give manufacturers more reason not to recall cars to proactively address a potential problem. The number of cars that actually have this problem is very small.

Pedal shim and brake recalls aren't quality items, so it ought not to have an effect. People seem to misunderstand this: if you bring your car in for a recall that you have not experienced the symptoms of it doesn't do much vis a vis quality rankings. If many people's cars break down because of a known issue but you get no warranty support because the manufacturer isn't issuing a recall, it does matter.

psarhjinian, Quality is not only quantitative but also qualitative. If you ask most people about a safety recall effecting the quality of the vehicle or manufacture, most people would say yes. If the car had large amounts of ugly hard plastic, most people would say that the quality of the car isn't as good as a car with nicer materials. By those definitions, Toyota's quality has slipped. I had a Toyota Camry rental about 6 months ago when I was traveling on business in Canada. It had a very ugly dash with tons of plastic. It really left me scratching my head reading tons of reviews about cheap plastics in GM vehicles... and here is this Camry with tons of plastic. The quality of the materials has gone down. Besides, quality and reliability are 2 different things.

Quite true on reliability vs. quality. But usually when the average person talks about a car's quality, they mean how often it requires a repair. On the quality front, both Toyota and Honda are now outdoing Detroit in the hard plastic dept.

Michael, I thought your survey asks if the vehicle was brought to the service department for a repair? I was thinking that if all those Toyota owners include their trip to the dealer to get the pedal shim, the Toyota numbers might shift. The data on the Equinox and Terrain shows that GM has opportunity to improve. I plan on using that info as leverage. Thanks for this summary.

One question on the survey asks how the car owner learned that it had a problem. One of the choices is a recall. If that is selected, the repair isn't included in the analysis. If the car owner experienced the problem prior to the recall, then they learned of the problem by experiencing it, and the repair then does count. The survey is here, if you want to look at the questions on it: http://www.truedelta.com/survey.php I've seen the same pattern repeatedly with GM vehicles: spotty first year, then an improvement to average. I suspect that the Equinox will go down the same path. No sign of any widespread hard-to-fix problem yet. The Lambdas had very troublesome roof leaks, and the 2008 had chassis vibrations. Nothing like either of these with the Equinox so far.