Originally Posted By: madRiver
My 2005 Legacy Gt was used car to avoid ((turbo only) and in its elder years 150k iConsumer Reports was dead on.
My 2007 Acura MDX with 170k follows their reliability to a tee.
Folks never realize that a low rating means problems are more likely to happen across the sample but does not mean you’ll experience them. The last time I read over 30%with issues means poor reliability. That means 7 in 10 still have okay experience.
That article links leaves out the truth and the math because I guess folks are too stupid to understand basic stats.
You make a very good point.
Reliability ratings come from population surveys and across the population of any model, you'll find both good and bad examples.
In a fleet of a hundred vehicles, the reliability ratings will likely have predictive value but for an individual owner, even a vehicle model known to be more troublesome than average may well prove to be perfectly durable and reliable.
A lot of the models with poor reliability ratings can be bought at deep discounts, like most FCA offerings or any from Mitsubishi, so the risk of more problems might well be worth taking, especially since the odds are actually in the buyer's favor.
As you point out, if 300 out of a thousand examples exhibit serious problems, then the model will be considered troublesome but any individual buyer is still more likely to have a good ownership experience than a bad one.
So, there is hope for the OP's Journey.