Topic: Consumer Reports rates Lexus, Toyota and Audi most reliable auto brands

[rrocket]

You're both right! 

A science experiment of sorts? 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

You're both right! 

A science experiment of sorts? 

 

[chignectohead]

A friend just got rid of an 18 month old Mazda3, and replaced it with a new RAM  pickup. The driver's side rearview mirror glass immediately fell out, and there are three or four other obvious faults. Brand new. Listed for $48K yet sold for $33K and was probably overvalued at that.

Nothing ever fell off, failed, or even glitched with the Mazda of course.

The ZF 9 speed is made by ZF for Acura and Land Rover. Chrysler licensed the technology and makes the 9 speed itself in its own factories, a fact they were touting just a little over a year ago. It is by far the worst transmission I've ever driven. Knowing how a dog-clutch works and giving it a pass does not excuse the crappy execution. It'd be fine, sort of, on flat lands. In a city like Halifax with hills, the uselessness of the thing is obvious. Why should anyone get "used" to rubbish?

[EV-Light]

I bet the failure rate of the 9 speed will be high in a few years...if they can't make the transmission work well when it's new, can you imagine after 60k kilometres on it?

A second thought is....I am concerned about the GM/Ford 9-10 speed.

[mmret]

The single biggest issue with CR is the inclusion of ergonomic or usability issues in their reliability survey. If someone thinks an HMI isn't responsive, or a transmission doesn't shift smoothly, it's something they should find out during the test drive.

By all means mention these issues in their road tests.

I'm only interested if things break.That's it. I'm quite capable of determining if I can live with a rough shifting car or odd controls.

This is a bit surprising coming from you. I thought you believed much more in the "the system needs to protect people from their own bad decisions / lack of intelligence / lack of ability" angle.

People should be free to make bad decisions, to a point. Having someone have to put up with harsh shifting or poor ergonomics isn't going to have devastating consequences.

That's fair.

What if they roll themselves into more and more debt because they keep buying shitty cars + trading them in after 6 months though

[jaari]

Love our '15 CRV Touring , was not sure about a CVT but I have grown to  like it a lot, then engine does have bit of a vibration at idle at times but to get the mileage it does, I don't care . But just about every 4 cyl car Ive had isn't the smoothest at idle.
Theres a vibration at approx 2000 rpm's if u go really slow but once the cvt figures where u wanna be its gone in seconds. I think CR just takes complaints like these and bundles them into reliability issues etc..

[ThePointblank]

According to CR they do treat major mechanical issues ith more weighting. At least last time I read it in detail.

According to CR, they are saying in this survey, they are focusing specifically on issues that are show stoppers that need dealer intervention. Things like display screens going blank and needing a dealer to reset it. They explain the survey in a recent podcast here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuO3_lqJIMM

[Noto]

First things first:

The balance of the top 10 finishers, in order, are Mazda, Subaru, Kia, Buick, Honda, Hyundai, and Mini.

A youtube reviewer - Alex on Autos - has a great video explaining the peculiarities of this transmission.

Click here for link
Interesting note in there about multispeed-CVT transmissions...I never would have thought to do that -good job, Nissan - just make it more reliable and better-feeling, please

I still don't understand what makes a CVT a poor choice for towing, though...why can't the pulley handle much torque?

As for the 9-speed, what happens when the doggy loses a tooth or two? Surely it's a possibility over time...?

As for CR's report, I see the value in it...but I think the explanation must be front and centre before making fairly strong statements such as "this manufacturer is at the bottom in terms of reliability."

[tooscoops]

meh... journalistic version of clickbait.....

doctors hate her since she learned this one secret!... this can't be unseen!... smell my finger!!

maybe not the last one.

as for the ram mentioned... mirrors don't generally fall out... and just to defend my brand a bit, 33 is one of the cheapest new pick-ups you can buy... so people need to realize what they are getting. sure 30+ is a lot of cake, but that truck vs the rest of the market is the equivalent of a mirage vs a mazda6... everything is relative.

doesn't excuse issues of course, just putting my 2 cents in... these days that rounds down to zero, so that seems about right!

[Noto]

as for the ram mentioned... mirrors don't generally fall out... and just to defend my brand a bit,

I concur - that mirror hit something.