With a new or thoroughly revised design, there’s always a chance of bugs. No new information there. This can happen with any manufacturer, even Honda or Toyota.

In the past, it’s been necessary to either take a chance with a new model, or wait a year.

But TrueDelta is changing this. When enough owners sign up quickly, we’re providing an initial reliability result four to six months after a model goes on sale. We reported on the 2008 Honda Accord back in February–Consumer Reports won’t until October. Right now I’m working on having results for some early 2009s in August.

And what if a new design has a high initial repair rate? (We’ll be reporting on one manufacturer with a consistently poor record in this area soon.) In the past, it’s been necessary to wait a year to see if the model’s reliability has improved. But TrueDelta updates four times a year. So if the initial result is discouraging, just wait a few months. In many cases it gets better because the manufacturer has identified problems, and fixed them.

TrueDelta’s process provides this information well before anyone else. So you can buy a new model while it’s still hot, without nearly as much worry.