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Most Reliable Vehicle Company?

mb7299

mb7299

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2013
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Iowa Falls
Curious what company everyone has had for vehicles and if they were reliable/cost efficient. I had Toyota's for 10 years and spent about 900 dollars on repairs total with it never not working for me. I bought a Ford C-Max energi that is 5 years old about 6 months ago and a module (ACM) went bad and drained my battery. All told it cost me 1,400 just for the part, with labor Ive spent more on repairs for this vehicle in half a year then I did in 10 years for Toyota.
 
I had a Toyota Camry for about 6 years and never had to do a thing to it. Ran like a charm. Now have a Subaru Outback for the past two years and only issue was a blower motor that was replaced under warranty.
 
Had GM and Ford. Typically run 150k+ miles. No issues. Parent have a Honda Minivan - not a good experience there.
 
My most reliable car up until this point was an 84 Delta 88 that was ugly as sin. It was a champ in the winter and lasted me through the abuse of high school and ISU.

I had a Pontiac Grand Am that lasted forever and was a great work car.

My Nissan Rogue had an issue with the transmission right after the warranty expired. Replacing it was about the same cost as repairing it and both were about the same as the KBB value. Not doing that again.

I'm two years in on my first Toyota with no issues. I'm pretty practical for my vehicles. I may spoil myself with a nicer vehicle some time, but it's not a priority right now.

My wife had decent luck with her Ford Explorer with only a transmission issue after 150,000. She has since had a Honda Pilot for 11 years and it has been extremely reliable.

I'd love for an American company to step up to the plate, but Honda and Toyota seem like they are comfortably in the lead at the moment.
 
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I had a Subaru for about 10 years with no major problems and have had two Fords (traded the first for a bigger one when my parking situation changed) since with no issues, but they have been relatively low mileage so far.
 
I had a 2002 Ford Explorer I drove until 280,000, had the transmission replaced once. Would probably have kept driving it to 300,000 plus if my step daughter wouldn't have crashed it.

Also, had a 2004 Mercury Mountaineer that I drove until 250,000.
 
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I've had Honda Ridgeline for 11 years now and other than replacing a brake caliper have not had any issues with it at all. Pretty much the same as the Honda minivan we had for 7 yrs. Wife wanted a Mazda CX9 and that thing was a POS from day one.... BUT....

IMO though the durability and longevity of going without breakdowns has a heck of a lot more to do with how it is driven and maintained than it has with the logo on the grill of the vehicle. Wait to change oil until you got tar in your oil pan instead of good motor oil and it isn't going to last. Foot to the floor when accelerating and/or braking will drop reliability usually. Continuing to drive a car when is is making weird noises or vibrating / grinding will lead to more repairs. Doing good maintenance at timely manner and getting stuff figured out or looked at when vehicle isn't performing as normal all lead to keeping cars running better for longer. If I know something is wrong with one of my vehicles, I will go nuts if I am not fixing it right away.
 
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What I'm finding leads to increased cost is all the fancy stuff they put in cars now days. All my cars tell me the tire pressure now, let me tell you replacing one of those little gadgets is not cheap. I'm noticing many vehicles go a long further than they used to. Wife's Mazda car had over 300k on it before we got a new Mazda3 in 2014. I love it. My dodge avenger is up to 160k without major issues yet. Had a Nissan Altima with head gaskets that started leaking at 60k. I'm sure Nissan's are fine and I just got a lemon. Still trust Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Subaru the most, and in that order.
 
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Beyerball said:
Subaru has been fantastic last few years.. can’t complain with an Outback for freez
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My last 2 outbacks both blew head gaskets about the 70,000 mile mark - but they were older model years... Still love them but my wife forbids me from buying another. In a Honda and a Toyota now and had GREAT success/reliability with an older Acura.
 
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Toyota is hands down more reliable than any other manufacturer, as far as I am concerned. Hondas are decent, but they have had a lot of transmission problems in recent years. Nissan is not that great. I had an old Subaru that was pretty decent. Needed some work, but it was a beater. For domestic vehicles, Ford has given me and my family the best reliability. I refuse to buy and Jeep or Chrysler. Those things have had so many issues, and also have a really bad build quality. I see 7-8 year old Chryslers that are all rusted out and the seat are worn out. GM is not that great either.

I work on cars on the side and one thing I will say about Toyota is that they do not use crap materials to build. GMs are horrible to work on. Hard to do anything to a 10 year old one without breaking off a rusty bolt, and they never think about someone having to fix them. Lots of hidden bolts, and access issues on things that are sure to wear out like swaybar link.
 
Here is advice from someone that has had a TON of cars:

Every brand can have a junker. Usually your best bet is to buy something that's in its at least 2nd year and do a little research online.

I've had 10+ Honda/Acura and have never had a bad experience. Some early 2000 models had transmission issues and the latest CRV has had some engine issues with gas getting in the oil.

If I had to pick a car strictly on reliability without knowing anything else, it would be Toyota/Lexus. They tend to be boring and conservative with about everything ,which helps their reliability. Their infotainment systems are pretty much garbage on every model.

I've only had one Mazda (Mazdaspeed 3) and it wasn't up to the same standards as Toyota/Honda. I've had a few Nissans and I consider those about the same as Mazda.

VW is a perfect example of what can go wrong. I had a 200* VW GTI that was rock solid. I would have trusted that thing to go a decade without issues. My wife has a 2018 VW Tiguan and it's had 4 recalls (all minor) and I don't trust it to be reliable.

You always hear nightmare stories about BMW but I trust the BMW that I have. The m235 has a 6 cylinder that has had few known issues and the transmission is an 8 speed that seems to be in about every car made today.

I'm not a fan of a lot of the turbo 4cyl's that a lot of companies have put out in the last couple of years. In real world they don't get the MPG boost that they claim and they usually sound like crap.
 
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With some exceptions, most all cars are going to last much longer. The caveat I would add, is that if you are buying new and want it to last a long time, is buy a base model without all the sensors and back up cameras, etc. A minor fender-bender can cost thousands just because of all the sensors. In some cases, the car won't operate properly if they are missing/not operating, so you can't just leave them broken.
 
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Scruff said:
What I'm finding leads to increased cost is all the fancy stuff they put in cars now days. All my cars tell me the tire pressure now, let me tell you replacing one of those little gadgets is not cheap. I'm noticing many vehicles go a long further than they used to. Wife's Mazda car had over 300k on it before we got a new Mazda3 in 2014. I love it. My dodge avenger is up to 160k without major issues yet. Had a Nissan Altima with head gaskets that started leaking at 60k. I'm sure Nissan's are fine and I just got a lemon. Still trust Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Subaru the most, and in that order.
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For the most part my ‘06 Nissan Altima has been really good to us. The one issue we had was for some stupid reason the front suspension of a Nissan Sentra was installed on my Altima when it was built, and the front suspension of the Sentra was known to be defective (whereas the Altima’s wasn’t), and our front suspension failed in that same way, and that was expensive to replace. The exhaust has really gone to crap and that needs to be replaced as well. Otherwise it’s been a really good car just to put miles on.

The only thing that sucks about owning a foreign nameplate is living near Detroit. You are looked down on as the scum of the earth (even though my car was made in Tennessee while the person judging me owns a car that was likely made in either Canada or Mexico). However, if domestics insist on phasing out all the midsize cars, I’ll just have to go foreign again.
 
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