While folks refer "reliability" as how long will a car last before it breaks without maintaining it. To me, I feel like any car can last any miles as long you do maintenance.
To me, I feel like any car can last any miles as long you do maintenance.
That's not really true. There have been plenty of cars that due to poor design will fall apart and require expensive repairs no matter how well you maintain them.
reliability is how much money you have to pump into a car to keep it going
Knowing if you maintain your vehicle it will last for a long time. This is not possible with all vehicles.
I feel like any car can last any miles as long you do maintenance.
Definitely not true. I'll give you one example to further illustrate this; Toyota Prius is known as a reliable hybrid vehicle because if one keeps up with the maintenance it will run for a long time without giving trouble. Now there was a Mercedes hybrid that the hybrid battery went out at only $40k miles. So now you tell me how in the world can this second vehicle be reliable when it has this low quality.
Maintenance is important. Build quality is even more important. If something is poorly built with cheap materials, it won't last long (GM and Chrysler, Hyundai and Kia).
No matter how well you maintain the powertrain on cars,
a lot of them will still fail because of poor design or poor manufacturing
(90% of modern American cars, 80% of European incl. Domestic Market, 50% of Japanese).
If you want to prove us wrong, just buy a: 2015 Chrysler 200 2.4L / 2017 Chevy Cruze 1.4T / 2012 Ford Focus 2.0L PowerShift / the new GMC Terrain 1.5L.
But all that's actually going to happen, is that you'll make a local mechanic very happy.
This is my go to story reliability.
I drove an 2007 BMW X5, from 2016-2020, from 160K miles to 200k miles. That’s only 4 years of ownership
I also own a 1999 Honda Accord since the beginning, and still currently runs. This is 20+ years of ownership.
I kept up with basic maintenance. Both were reliable. They worked.
But here is the kicker. And spent more money maintaining the BMW in 4 years, than 20 years of my maintaining my Honda Accord. Labor cost more for the BMW. Parts cost more for the BMW. And it adds up quick.
So yes, if you maintain a car, it can be reliable. But depending on the car, maintenance alone can turn it into an endless money pit.
How much abuse it can take without issues.
One time a guy put chocolate milk (the kind you drink) into the engine on a 90s Corolla drove it 50 miles before it started having an issue, drained out the chocolate milk, added fresh oil, and it still ran.
My friend drove her 99 Civic 3 quarts low of oil for awhile (she didn't realize it was leaking) and it ran normally. You can't abuse any other kind of car like that.
I take it then that you have never owned a car with the Mopar Slant-Six engine.
My first car, '64 Valiant with the Slant Six. Great engine.
Amen (@delano) Good, robust design is important, but a lot depends on quality materials, and how they are prepped/handled/assembled during manufacture. I help friends fix their vehicles, and I am often dismayed at the quality of the materials - and I check the equivalent of the failed parts on my Toyotas or Suzuki and the metal isn't rusted, the plastic isn't cracked, rubber is less deteriorated. Cheap materials fail, early and often, and you get tired of fixing them.
Start up and go when I need it to. Doesn't leave me stranded on the side of the road waiting on a wrecker. Proper maintenance can lower the probability of this happening but with some cars not so much.
"What's your definition of reliability?"
Toyota
My definition of reliability is when a vehicle has 250k-300k+ miles on the original engine and transmission.
that doesn't mean much if you had to spend tens of thousands of $$ to replace head gaskets, crankshaft seals, water pumps, etc. just to get it to that point.