First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

I know a lot of people don't put much stock in Consumer Reports' car reviews, but I think their reliability data is useful.

There's an article this month looking at reliability in the first year of a model vs. later years. Across all brands, the first year is significantly less reliable; there are 20% fewer problems in the second year and 29% fewer in the third (compared to the first). Their conclusion is that it's best not to buy a car in its first year after an introduction or redesign.

They also break it down by brand. BMW comes in last--that is, they have the most first-year problems. There's only a slight dropoff in the second year, and then a pretty big drop (improved reliability) in the third year of a model.

Compared to other brands, for the first year, BMWs have 80 problems per 100 cars. Mercedes is about 70, Audi is about 55, and the best is Honda with 20.

There's an obvious pattern in the chart--all of the best brands are Japanese, the Americans are in the middle, and the Europeans (except for Volvo, which is the best of the Europeans) are at the bottom.

Reply » First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

Where´s the news in your post? That´s all ccommon knowledge / something common sense will tell you.
Many people will take the first year bugs knowingly anyway for the sake of diving the new model.

Reply » First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

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Where´s the news in your post? That´s all ccommon knowledge / something common sense will tell you.
Many people will take the first year bugs knowingly anyway for the sake of diving the new model.

WHile the fact that first-year mdoels are less reliable is not exactly "news", it is interesting that BMW is the worst of the bunch in this regard. I always wondered why BMW doesn't get their act together for first year models--- I think they've been screwing this up for a long time. Oh well, it doesn't really affect me because I'd never buy a first-year or second-year BMW under any circumstances. I'm sure someone will says its because BMWs are on the cutting edge of technology or something like that. Well, yeah, sort of, maybe. But, its not like the Japanese manufactures don't have lots of cutting edge gagets in their cars. And, many of hte typeical first year BMW problems often have to do w/ mundane items like door seals, bushings, rattles etc; hardly "high-tech".

Reply » First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

Just a guess...

BMW owners are very picky about their cars and will take the car in for any minor repair or problem. Plus most BMWs come loaded with accessories and BMW builds complex cutting edge cars, all three of these things add to the bad reliability numbers.

Reply » First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

So at worst, 100 problems per 100 cars, it means that one typical owner will get back once (hopefulkly) to the dealer for one problem. Big deal. Not enough to me to avoid a first year car...

Reply » First-year reliability (Consumer Reports)

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So at worst, 100 problems per 100 cars, it means that one typical owner will get back once (hopefulkly) to the dealer for one problem. Big deal. Not enough to me to avoid a first year car...

No, at worst, it could be 1000 problems or even more per 100 cars in a year. If it is only 80 problems per 100 cars in a year, I'm fine with it in average unless I'm the worst owner who gets 80 problems in a year and all others don't get any problem.

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