this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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Aren't Subarus infamous for leaking oil?
That's a feature... it forces you to have regular oil changes, which improves the reliability of the car.
I believe this is meant to be a joke but the number of people I know who don’t maintain their cars is way too high.
They are? I've owned 3 Subarus over 20 years and have never heard about that. Their old 2.5L engines were known for consuming oil, if you fed them thinner 5w-30 oil in warm climates, however. A lot of people switched to 10w-40 to solve it.
They are. The area where the head gasket seals the oil in their boxer engines is way too small and over my years of being a mechanic I only saw a handful that weren't leaking.
What is predicted reliability? Does this mean it’s their reputation and not actual data?
It's based on first year reliability. Decades ago, most new cars needed service (i.e. something broke or QA missed something) in their first year. The average rate of these issues was a pretty good indicator of reliability as the car aged, although you'd need to apply a multiplier as things wore out over time.
I don't know if it's still a meaningful indicator these days.
The issue with it is it favors simple cars.
A car with ten features is less likely to have an issue than a car with 1000.
On one side yes that's a measure of likelihood of having issues.
But on the other hand if the car with ten features has a failure with each one, it's not going to be a great car to drive compared to a car with 1000 features that has failures on 11.
I know it is anecdotal, but I have had my Toyota since 2015 and the only issue being regular maintenance, is when there is a cross wind it gets loud in the cabin. There was a recall for it and the dealer fixed one door, but said the other is fine. Meanwhile my mom’s one year newer Subaru is always having some issue or another.
Could that also be how you both drive differently, or maintain differently?
FYI ignore this info
It's utterly wrong in every country except one