From your experience, which make of car is the most trouble-free and reliable (least prone to need repair)?

Question

I am interested in your thoughts about reliability with no consideration given to prestige, styling, looks, cost of car, etc.

Answer 1

Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura and Nissan/Infinity rate consistently at the top of all reliability surveys with Toyota being ahead of everybody else.

Answer 2

The big three Japanese brands, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota, and their big ticket subsidiaries, Acura, Infiniti, and Lexus (respectively). I'm a big fan of Nissans, my father and his family nearly all drive Hondas, my mother and step-Dad have a Lexus. My brother drives an Acura.

I've driven Fords (Mercury Marquis and Ford Mustang) and they were garbage. I rebuilt that Mustang from stem to stern TWICE, and replaced ten clutches in ten years... kept it because I was in my 20s and foolish. I had a Buick Park Avenue for a while, and repairs were big ticket. It was comfortable, though.

I have an old 280ZX as a weekend knockaround car and I also drive a Nissan Altima, which is a great car. My wife drives a Kia, and the next big ticket repair (anything near the resale value) and it gets replaced with a Nissan.

Answer 3

1969 Land Rover sequence 2a SWB Petrol. Used from 1988 to 1995 over a hundred sixty five,000 miles approx. different than recurring servicing and tyres, it required a gearbox mainshaft after the unique snapped in the time of a restoration interest, and one alternator conversion after the unique dynamo failed. Averaged 22-26mpg, and replaced into in use as a 24 hour restoration truck and repair barge, to boot as a on an well-known basis driving force/very own transport at weekends. I do omit it. I now have a 1970 LWB Diesel. additionally stable, all right down to upkeep.

Answer 4

based on 2 1/2 years working at a pep boys with a service center and having to make customer calls to make sure that the work done on their car went well, here's what i noticed:

fords tended to be in for major work and when it was routine maintainence, it was more expensive than most other cars.

chevys were in more for rountine maintainence than serious problems and the more serious problems tended to be on older models (we're talking 15+ years old)

hondas & accords were very rarely anything more than routine maintainence - even on the really old models

toyotas were the same as hondas & accords except when it came to the trucks, they seemed to have suspension problems

isuzus were always huge problems and expensive to fix (they should be less expensive now that gm bought them out). we didn't see many, but when we did - HUGE problems (like replacing the engine big)

we only ever saw one caddy on a regular basis, and he took great care of his car

pretty much everything else we rarely saw (except maybe for smog inspections) so they never made much of an impression on me.


from my own personal experience - ford focuses are the biggest pieces of crap EVER manufactured, older mitsubishi galants will putter right along for you - until you totally screw up the maintainence, preludes will last as long as you make them last, the chevy colorado is a great little truck (but dealing with gm in a foreign country sucks as*, "there's nothing we can do for you" schmucks), volvo's are total little troopers so long as you take proper care of them (my grandmother has had one for around 20 years now), that damn little ford truck - as soon as the warranty goes out so does the fuel filter, nissan trucks will take care of you as long as you take care of them, oldsmobiles are also good big troopers, once you start having problems with a pontiac bonneville - they never end, an old firebird will go and go and go with minimal maintainence (so long as you don't mind replacing the battery and alternator fairly often [get ones with warranties]), bmw's are some of the biggest pieces of crap - after the first 7-10 years they've hit the point of no return on the crap side.


all in all, i'd say go gm, honda, or acura if you're staying in the states and planning on a car. go with an OLDer nissan or a gm if you're looking for a truck.

but remember, personal experiences are just that - personal. it doesn't account for every car. the only blanket thing i can tell you for a vehicle is to not buy it in the first few years of production as they're still working out all the bugs (unless they have essentially taken a different model that they used to use, given it a little different body style and a new name [ie the colorado])

Answer 5

I bought a 15 month old Toyota Celica in 1979, paid about $7000 and sold it in 1998. During that time I replaced 2 exhaust systems, one starter motor, one radiator, one fan fluid clutch, two rear shock absorbers, one front strut, one rear bumper when it got crunched (cost for a new one $80!!!), one gas strut on the liftback, three or four sets of ignition points and a few light bulbs, batteries and tires. I put new belts and hoses in two years after I got it and they were still good when I sold it.

By the time it was 22 years old the only things that didn't work were the rear window demister and one of the speeds of the heater blower. There was minor rust in the top of the doors and the spare wheel well which I treated and it stopped. The engine was getting tired but didn't use much oil and the transmission was good. I sold it for $1700. The man I sold it to put new rings and bearings in it, repainted it blue and it is still on the road.

If you want reliability, get a Toyota. End of story

Answer 6

I am a Volvo Fan who could only afford a Chevy.
I was not interested in a Honda because too many people In my City do dumb annoying crap to them, such as loud exhaust, random paint jobs, dumb stickers, "fins?", and ground kits.
I recently met people with over 240,00 miles on an Accord and one has only had to replace oil, and a fuel filter. Honda owners usually have good running, decent looking cars that are often old and have a resale value.
I think that oil changes and good brakes are key to keeping a car going.

Answer 7

Japanese vehicles such as Honda and Toyota. I have owned allot of different makes and those were the most reliable ones. The worst were Ford and Jeep. I have had two Chevy's and they were pretty good also.

Answer 8

I have a Saturn with 160,000 miles on it and due to financial problems recieved little maintance. It is a 1996 and is only now starting to give me some problems. Not anything major, mostly the kind of things all cars have done at one time, brakes, muffler, minor oil leak, new battery. It's been great!

Answer 9

Acuras and Hondas are very reliable cars.

Answer 10

BMW TOYOTA/LEXUS nissan, GM if you keep-up the fluid changes without fail. I have personally owned a Mercedes for some time now and I love it!