TrueDelta Updates Reliability Survey Results
Thanks in part to the help of people from TTAC, TrueDelta received a record number of responses to April’s Car Reliability Survey—over 22,000. Updated car reliability stats have been posted to the site for 559 cars, up from 534 three month ago. There are partial results for another 418. These stats include car owner experiences through the end of March 2011, making them at least eleven months ahead of other sources.
Highlights among new 2011s:
–the repair frequency for the Ford Fiesta continues to worsen—it’s the highest among the 2011s for which we have a statistic—while the Jeep Grand Cherokee also appears to have more than the average number of problems
–the BMW 5-Series seems about average so far, but BMWs sometimes require few repairs for the first year or so then take a turn for the worse
–the Honda CR-Z and Toyota Sienna appear to rarely require repairs
There are also updated statistics for the percentage of cars that required no repairs or 3+ repair trips in the past year. These statistics can be more useful than the averages.
To view the updated results:
Car Reliability Survey results
Come across something interesting? Please post it in the comments here.
Michael Karesh operates TrueDelta, an online source of automotive pricing and reliability data.
Michael Karesh lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, with his wife and three children. In 2003 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. While in Chicago he worked at the National Opinion Research Center, a leader in the field of survey research. For his doctoral thesis, he spent a year-and-a-half inside an automaker studying how and how well it understood consumers when developing new products. While pursuing the degree he taught consumer behavior and product development at Oakland University. Since 1999, he has contributed auto reviews to Epinions, where he is currently one of two people in charge of the autos section. Since earning the degree he has continued to care for his children (school, gymnastics, tae-kwan-do...) and write reviews for Epinions and, more recently, The Truth About Cars while developing TrueDelta, a vehicle reliability and price comparison site.
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Seems to me that Ford has gotten somewhat of a free pass after not takig the bailout money, there is more to that story for sure. The people that I know that own Ford stores are telling me they are seeing as many or maybe even a few more issures with the new launches as they have with previous launches of Ford products. Time will tell. Things are never as good or as bad as they seem, Ford maynot be as good as they seem and certainly Toyota is not as bad.
As an early owner of the Fiesta, I haven't had any major issues. My complaints were the the "reservation" process. It was only on paper. The car's problems have been small, but shouldn't have happened. Gas gauge only went up to 7/8. Took five months before they were autherized to fix. Or was it seven? Still works poorly. The clock is slow! And the speedo is 5 or 6 mph too fast, yet the odometer is right on. They say the speedo error is OK, in specs, I guess the clock has a fix, but it's a hassle to take the car in. I need to check the ground on the battery. Workmanship is good, MPG's are great and it's a fun car to drive. It needs a traction control Off switch and an arm rest. Where are all those soft touch surfaces they talked about. The high end models should have a nicer interior than the base, but they really don't. I'll gladly pay extra for those things. I got the five speed manual, works nicer than my old Toyota, but not as nice as my old Neon or Tempo. I should be glad they offer a manual.
I see the 2011 Kia Soul has zero faults on 26 cars - is that likely to stay that low? Also interesting when I looked at nada/lemons and saw the Soul being 73% and
I sold my Saab 9-3SC that was in the survery, but will add the new BMW once I pick it up in July. In 26 months/34K miles the Saab had ZERO extra trips to the dealership. A couple minor niggles fixed under warranty at the scheduled services. The worst of which was they replaced the battery due to some stored low-voltage codes. I had no idea. Hoping the new 328iT is as good.