dcak

My S is my first newish car, and I've put on 50k+ miles, withouth anything breaking, except the power outlet on the center console. What do you guys generally consider a reliable car? I don't mean make/model, I mean if you went 50k miles with no problem, is that normal or reliable. I tend to think that it shows reliability (so far, at least), but again, I don't have much of a baseline for comparison. I'm just bored at work, and curious..

Guzo

Reliability for me is simply not being stranded anywhere with the car. My car has had a few problems like your center console, but as long as it gets me from A to B, the rest can be fixed when the car goes in for service.

Lice Locket

At 50k, I wouldn't say anything yet: My old Taurus had only 70k miles before it started to fall apart. My family sold it whne it had about 90k miles for 700 bucks (sigh, my first car...). My current Honda Civic; 97k miles, has no problems, except for two minor ones: passenger cannot roll up his window (only the driver can roll up the passenger window, I presume its just some connection issue that can be fixed easily) and the ticker doesn't click back sometimes after a turn.

However, my household also has a 1991 Mitsubishi Mighty Max w/ 130k miles, which has had NO problems except once; it leaked oil a while back. Now, THAT, imo, is REALLY reliable, especially for a Mitsu at that time!

Because of the life of the Taurus (longer than my friends' Tauruses) and the Mighty Max, I think the "reliability" of your car is dependent of how you take car of it. My mom's friend bought her first car, also a Honda Civic, and it was new. Her car engine DIED at less than 30k miles. Why? Because she never had a car for herself before, she didn't know anything about changing the oil, and the old oil just solidified in her engine, and the mechanics couldn't even fix it.

So, back to the question: "Reliability" of a car is measured by the relationship of the mileage and whether can get and still do what you want it to. In most cases, getting somewhere. If, at 50k miles, the engine couldn't start, and you were late to work, then that's not that reliable as a car that has 100k miles that can get you to work on time (its relative).

AzNxKuKu

Well, first off you are lucky your car doesn't have much trouble at 50k miles. Mines is at 35,9xx miles and my car is sitting at the dealership getting my clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder replaced. Also they said my left rear shock wasn't leaking cause they didn't find any oil. However I am pretty sure it was leaking because when I went to a friend to do my oil change (he always inspects my car) he found that the left rear shock look different from my right rear shock.

As far as the being consider "reliable" my thoughts are the same as what guys posted before me.

-Alan

Slamnasty

I would consider reliable to be maybe only putting a few hundred a year into the car.

Now since I've almost entirely driven used cars of varying ages since 15, a few hundred a year is not much to me. And for this few hundred I would not include new "wear" items like tires. I spent well more than a few hundred in 2004, but most of what I spent was on a set of new tires and a new CD HU to replace the factory one that died in 2003. The rest of the cash I spent on it in 2004 was for oil changes and an alternator fix, the only important engine things I did this year. The alternator was I think the original factory piece, so I understood it was a fix that just came with owning a 12 year-old car.

I would say, if, in 12-15k miles you've only spent a few hundred to keep it up, that's reliable. My current daily driver is a 93 Maxima SE 5spd. If I had an auto in my car I would probably feel a lot less kindly toward it.

If I had a Toyota Corolla with a manual, I'd probably think reliable was being able to go 2-3 years without a major fix, and only spending cash on oil changes.

For me, it depends:
A) on the kind of car it is
B) after that, how good or bad the owner treats it
C) reliability is in a small way climate dependent

In closing I would say though that B is the most important, and the hardest to assess, factor in overall reliability.

DiamondDave2005

We have a '94 Civic with 136,000 miles, and so far the only non-routine maintenance items have been an oil-pan gasket in 2003 ($107, including labor), and a new thermostat a few weeks ago ($20, installed it myself).

My now defunct '94 T-Bird SC -
<1,000 miles - headlight burns out.
33,000 miles - radiator meltdown.
50,000 miles to 137,000 miles - weird unresolved electrical problems, car would die in rain, luckily always at traffic lights or on empty roads.
101,000 miles - left rear wheel bearing shot, mechanic said I was lucky I hadn't lost a wheel while driving it.
127,000 miles - transmission dies on Delaware Memorial Bridge, lucky to limp home at 40mph in last remaining gear.
137,000 miles - traded it in before it ground to a halt. It was six years old at that point.

hpark

wow, i would say that is VERY reliable...usually you need to take the car in a couple of times for SOMETHING going wrong by 50K mi......i would say a reliable car would have no major problems (e.g. a/c stops working) and only a couple of minor problems (e.g. radio knob fell off).

QUIKAG

Amazingly, my '01 C5 has only had an oil temp. sensor and brake booster replaced in 40k very hard miles.

Typically, I would say that 'reliable' nowadays would be a car that can go 100,000 miles with just routine maintenance and maybe one or two very minor issues.

svtman

I've had good luck with some unusual cars...

'74 Pinto that would not die no matter how badly my 16 yr old self tortured it. Sold it with 119,000 mi. BTW I'm old.
'82 Honda Civic dialed in for the track by Oscar Jackson of Jackson Racing. Licensc said IEATGTI Sold at 60,000 mi. No problems.
'85 Honda Accord LX The only thing that died was me...from boredom.
'88 Isuzu Trooper Brutalized off road. 125,000 mi. No problems.
'91 Isuzu Stylus XS 8000 rpm with Lotus tuned susp. Embarrassed many a hot hatch. No problems 140,000 mi and it's still in the family
'93 Montero RS An unstoppable on/off road Battlewagon with a rear locker and 168,000 mi. O.K. I had to replace the water pump. I still have it.

Officer_down

You wanna know reliability? My Tacoma has about 220K miles, been in many accidents ranging from fender-benders to serious ones, and it's still running without a hiccup. It has never died and always started without hesitation. Serious accidents normally take heavy tolls on the engine, but this one keeps on going and going.