Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
If you get the Consumer Reports online data, that's going to get you the closest to a real, reliable, useful dataset for most cars. CR is very good and very objective, though they have some limitations (they rarely test multiple engine configurations, and they make certain assumptions about consumers' needs). Data in general shows that cars have become vastly more reliable on a problem/mile basis
That said, I think the problem with brand reputation is that reliability means different things to different people. Here's a lightly fictionalized version of my experience with car brands, representative anecdotes:
Chevy: Things break all the time, but they're easy to fix, the parts are cheap, and any mechanic can do it. The belt on my Avalanche went, I picked up a new one for $80 at NAPA down the road, a buddy of mine who is handy put it on in his garage for free in exchange for hunting privileges on some land we own. Will keep on like this, with every small part being replaced, for another 200,000 miles.
Toyota: Nothing ever really breaks. It runs forever, beyond wear items. I have a 2005 Camry, nothing has ever been needed on it but a battery, tires, and the speaker covers on the back shattered in the sun. Random interior parts are beat, but who cares.
BMW/MB/Audi: Runs absolutely beautifully, better than anything else, until it suddenly breaks a little after it is out of warranty. No one will be able to tell you what's wrong with it, at the dealership or elsewhere. When they get some idea what widget that lunches the engine might be, the parts are $3,000 and they have to be special ordered from a single Bavarian trappist monastery, where they only make them in the Spring. Fixing that widget might or might not actually fix the car, hard to say.
I'm not so much standing by this as truly representative data, it's just my anecdotal experience. My point is that reliability can mean different things. For a handy guy who doesn't mind doing a bit of work, he'll say the Chevy just runs and runs; while for a woman who has everything done at the dealership it will seem like a hassle. For a rich insurance salesman who leases every four years, he won't care that his BMW will break down at 6 years/80,000 miles because by then it will be two years since he owned it, as far as he's concerned the car was great, even if it broke down he took it to the dealership and they gave him a brand new loaner so it was no skin off his back. So the anecdotes on the topic won't be consistent from actual people, you have to consider a hundred different factors, then discount them by context and probability.
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