Letters to the Editor
sunspot
Published Letters: 351 Editor's Choice: 43
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American Cars & Reliability
[Read the article: The Prius vs. the Edge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey Anonymous, you do realize that those best and worst lists Consumer Reports post don't cover all the cars in the market, right? Those lists only cover a small fraction all all vehicles available. While it's true there are still quite a few lemons pumping out of Detroit, American cars are nevertheless on average quite reliable these days - more reliable than European cars, and more reliable than even Japanese cars were a decade or so ago. That's because all cars are on average more reliable now than they were a few years ago.
In general, reliability is no longer a good reason to avoid purchasing an American car. There may be other reasons - performance, design, fit & finish, gas mileage - but reliability (currently) isn't one of them. As with the imports, it pays to research the reliability of the individual models you're interested in. And if you're buying a new car, I'd argue that reliability isn't a terribly important consideration, assuming it's expected to be average or better - your warranty should take care of most issues, and today's "average" would have been yesteryear's "superstar".
(It's funny to note that Chryslers are now more reliable than Mercedes. Who thought we'd ever live to see that day?)
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Hey Anonymous
[Read the article: The Prius vs. the Edge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Learn what an average is.
If they were average, you'd expect the number of cars in the best to equal the number in the worst
Wrong. The 20 or 40 or whatever worst models on the road could ALL be American cars and American manufacturers could still have better than average or even exceptional reliability overall. They just need enough models in the middle or at the head of the pack to balance out the crap.
There aren't a slew of exceptionally reliable American cars, but there's a plethora of models with average or somewhat better than average reliability, more than making up for the stinkers on that list you cited. A quick browse thru the Consumer Reports site backs that up.
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Domestic No Longer A Dirty Word
[Read the article: The Prius vs. the Edge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Saying that Chrysler is more reliable than Mercedes is funny for a few reasons: 1) I don't know that it's true. Cite your sources; 2) Mercedes had owned Chrysler since 1998 (DaimlerChrysler) so it hasn't been an American car company for nearly the last decade
My source is Consumer Reports, the same source you cited, and misapplied. See http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/pricing/best-worst-in-car-reliability-1005/how-makes-compare/0407_how-makes-compare.htm
Arguing that Chrysler isn't an "American" car company is kind of silly. Most of its models are made here in North America, from US designs. By that logic is Volvo a European car company? It's owned by Ford afterall, shares some designs with Ford, and in general its models are more reliable than any other European manufacturer, save Audi. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models are more reliable on average than any European car, save Volvos and Audis.
Your second argument, that all cars are reliable is horse puckey. That argument is silly and does not address my main (and cited) point that American cars are not average in reliability.
Well, your argument that American cars are not "average in reliablity" clearly doesn't hold water, based on CU's own data. And as CU notes on this page:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/maintenance-accessories/consumer-reports-car-reliability-faq-8-06/overview/0608_consumer-reports-carreliability-faq_ov.htm#6.3
7. Has the reliability of cars been changing over time?
Are cars getting more reliable than they used to be?
Yes. In the past 20 years, the reliability of all vehicles
has improved greatly, on average. Of course, some models
have remained quite unreliable, while others have
improved quite dramatically. American models have made
the greatest improvements, but they historically have
had the most improving to do. Asian models have improved
as well, so the gap between domestic and foreign cars
has narrowed, but it still remains.
Based on the standards of a decade or so ago, most manufacturers make reliable cars today. How reliable is reliable enough? Were Hondas and Toyotas garbage a decade ago? Nissans? Because domestic cars today are on average roughly as reliable as Japanese cars were a decade ago, and some models are far more reliable.
It's positively stupid to rule out "American" cars at this point. You have to look at cars on a model-by-model basis, and consider total cost of ownership. For example, the V4 Camrys sport only average reliability according to Consumer Reports. Ford makes several comparable models that are more reliable, and less expensive, including the Mazda6-based Ford Fusion, which actually bests the Mazda in performance, reliability and customer satisfaction.
Camrys are not sexy cars. People buy them in droves because they don't break. They hold their resale value wonderfully because they don't break. I am sorry if you put an American car in your garage recently but it doesn't change the facts on the ground.
I've never owned an American car in my life - I was never in the market for a new car, and as a used car they represented a poor value proposition to me, due to a number of factors (design, fuel economy, reliability). That's changed in the past couple of years. The designs themselves are vastly improved - some of them, anyhow - the reliabilty is better, fuel economy is better, and the availability of rebates and low or no-interest financing makes some models highly competitive as new cars. They may or may not hold their resale value as well as a Camry or Accord, but that's only one factor in the total cost of ownership. Is it worth paying an extra $4,000 (or more) to get an extra $1,000 in resale value 5 years down the road?
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Hybrids and "complexity"
[Read the article: The Prius vs. the Edge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Which is why I said it was crazy, it seems to me you're adding a lot of complexity, for very small gains. Added complexity is going to eventually cause a higher rate of failure.
Except the Prius and hybrid Civic have been around for years now, and their reliability is exceptional - as good as or better than conventional vehicles. So reality doesn't seem to jibe with your assumptions.