Every so often in browsing auto forums I come across a list of problems someone has had with their car, after which the owner concludes, “but these are all minor. I haven’t had any major problems.”

Or they’ll simply post, “I haven’t had any major problems with the car.”

Or, in critiquing reliability information from TrueDelta and elsewhere: “But they count a power window regulator the same as an automatic transmission failure.”

TrueDelta doesn’t simply ask members to report only “problems you considered serious,” as others do, because definitions of what counts as “serious” vary too much. Some would report a rattle, others wouldn’t report anything that didn’t keep them from getting to work. Instead, TrueDelta’s survey includes some questions that will enable us to separate minor problems from major ones as objectively as possible. 

It turns out that, with cars during the warranty period, nearly all problems these days are minor, if by “major” you mean something that renders the car unsafe or undriveable, or that costs over $1,000 to fix.  So, if you’re only concerned about avoiding such major problems during the first 50,000 miles, even the first 100,000 miles, then buy just about anything.

But some people want to avoid anything that requires that they do without their car for a day or two while the dealer fixes it. Even these people should look beyond the usual reliability information to the repair rates reported by TrueDelta. Usually the differences between one model and another are under a repair trip per year. But not always.