0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Livewire, that probably would improve reliability in the of the consumer, but also at a higher cost. I do all the maintenance on my vehicles, and have yet to have one fail on me (Besides a electrical problem in my pickup. The pickup sensor for the HEI died). Personally, I think taking your car to a dealership is a joke. The wheel bearings just went out in our 2002 buick. 102,000 miles, WTF?? Anyways, 250 dollars later, and a couple hours, they were replaced (the fronts). People online complain about it costing 500-750 dollars PER WHEEL. I understand the labor is not cheap, but I will always choose to do my own maintenance, but I also understand how others do not have the know-how/time/patience etc.
No censorship needed here E-farmer,you just came up with the answer to everything.....^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"YUMMI MADE ME DO IT"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HAHAHA its perfect.
It is my point though that the reliability reports are based upon consumer opinion. Most consumers do not work on their own cars. ...
I quoted my numbers from ConsumerReports.org . Their data is from over 1.4 million cars over ten years. All of their questionnaires are the same--the customer has to fill in the car type. There is no bias, and it's simple... put a circle in every place you've had problems. The thing I like a bout CR is they don't take advertising from anybody, and they don't set out to "prove" anything; they set out to discover what's best.
Someone at work bought a Scion. I picked him up and dropped him off for 3 repairs at the dealer within the first 2 months he owned it. Yet he still insisted his car was more reliable than the Saturn Ion Redline that someone else I work with bought at the same time that had not needed any repairs. The Scion owner rationalized why each thing was not a reliability issue. It's all opinion based. Opinions all tend to be biased. A person who buys a foreign car because they say it is more reliable will bias his/her opinions in order to rationalize the decision to buy the car.
Your story is anecdotal. My Dad bought a Chevy truck, and had to have major work done every year, until he was sick of pouring money into it and being with out it, and got rid of it when it was a year past the warranty. He bought a Toyota, and never once had to fix it in three years. That's anecdotal, too. One story does not make a trend, even if it supports your viewpoint.1.4 million reviews is not anecdotal. You are not going to get a million people to say they had tranny problems on brand A but not brand B. No, they check off a list of anything they've had problems with, and you get a bell curve of reality and what to expect.Statistically speaking, people in the midwest claim American cars are more reliable than people on the coasts. Maybe it has something to do with where the bread and butter comes from.
I think LiveWire is on to something with the dealers suggesting preventative maintenance. It is actually a brilliant strategy, and would affect how people view the reliability of their vehicle, including how they answered questions about it.