We had a member quit in a huff last month because of TrueDelta’s “obvious bias” against domestic cars. He hasn’t been the first–there have been a handful of others–and he won’t be the last.

His evidence: most of our Vehicle Reliability Survey results are for cars made by foreign-based manufacturers. And, for some reason, when rabid fans of domestic cars see something they don’t like, “bias” is their preferred accusation. (Saner fans tend to be capable of more nuance.)

As plenty of people will attest, I post on just about any active auto forum that will give me permission to do so. And I post on plenty of forums that focus on domestic cars.

The problem, as far as I can tell: owners of domestic cars are much less likely to actively participate in these forums. The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu is a hot product judging from the low inventories. But good luck finding an active forum for the car.

Or course, most of TrueDelta’s members come from other sources: my reviews at Epinions, word of mouth, search engines. But owners of domestic cars also seem to be less likely to learn of our research through these sources.

There are exceptions. A very active forum exists for Saturns at SaturnFans.com. And owners of GM’s large crossovers have made EnclaveForum.net and AcadiaForum.net into thriving communities.

And, guess what? We have excellent sample sizes for these vehicles–over 100 in a few cases.

Bias has nothing to do with it. TrueDelta will report results for any model we have enough data on. One of my motivations for starting the research was to enable more accurate comparisons between domestic and foreign cars. But I can only put the research in place; I can’t personally provide the data. That part is up to owners.

For reasons that ought to be obvious, withdrawing from the study isn’t the best way to make this happen.