Updated Car Reliability Survey results were posted to the site late last night, minutes before the end of May. I hope to not cut it nearly so close in the future.

Actually, these results were later than I would have liked because of changes to the survey that should make future updates happen sooner after the end of each quarter. Because of these changes, we had to review about 30% more responses for errors this time around, but we now have a big head start on the next update.

Looking at the results themselves, some stand out…

Last quarter we had a preliminary stat for the all-new, Tennessee-made Volkswagen Passat, and it wasn’t pretty. With the update, based on far more data on more cars, the reported repair frequency is down by nearly half, and now isn’t far from average. Why the huge change? First, the earlier result was based on a small sample size, and so was not precise. Second, it’s likely that early cars had glitches, but VW quickly identified and fixed them.

The reported reliability stat for the FIAT 500 didn’t change much–and this is a good thing. No repairs were reported for any of the 28 participating cars during the first quarter. Only one repair has been reported during the past year. Who guessed this cars would be so reliable?

Another positive surprise: the redesigned Audi A6 and A7 have also had a very clean launch, with hardly any reported repairs.