[rohrt]

You guys have any goto links for determining the reliability when looking at used vehicles?

[TAKerry]

Kinda loaded question. I guess it depends on what kind of used car you are looking for. I think used Hondas and Toyotas are a pretty good bet. I bought a used expedition for a second work truck a couple of years ago that had just turned 100k miles. My f 150 pickup at the time had well over 200k and I had an idea of what kinda things to look for. So far the Exp. has been a great truck with few problems.

[The Champ]

How new/old of a vehicle are you looking for?

JD Power's long term dependability surveys are for 3 year old vehicles still owned by the original owner - so that's 3 years of history on said vehicle from the person who bought the car new.

For instance - the 2019 survey is for 2016 vehicles. Let's say you were looking for a car. The top 3 for each category would be:



Not looking for a car, but a truck or suv?



If the vehicle you're looking at isn't one of the top 3 - you can look at the overall brand reliability too:



Link to full 2019 info:

https://d1arsn5g9mfrlq.cloudfront.ne.../slide1_64.jpg

If you're looking for a little bit older vehicle - just look for the 2018/2017/2016 results for 2015/2014/2013 vehicles.

[mgarblik]

Consumer Reports Magazine both print and on-line have been keeping records for over 50 years on vehicle reliability. But as in all things, understand the source and results. Their reliability data comes from THEIR readers and subscribers. Every 6-months they survey them for reliability of all kinds of items including vehicles. They never publish exactly how they weigh the individual answers. I still think it's useful to establish general trends and locate true duds. One of many tools. The print annual auto issue is out now. Might be worth a look. In general, the big three Asian brands do very well. An exception the past several years is Acura, which is puzzling since they are a Honda. But a great example of the possible flaws in their methods. Since it is essentially a complex customer satisfaction survey, Acura owners expectations must be much higher than a regular Honda owner. So no survey is perfect.

[Chief of the 60's]

No link needed, just buy a Toyota or Hyundai/Kia

All those so-called "reports" are biased. Wasn't it JD Powers that said GM was more reliable than Toyota? LMAO!

[rohrt]

Looking at a 2014 Traverse. Basically wanting to know if they are any major flaws to the motor or transmissions that I should know about. I know earlier version of that motor had timing chain issues.

But If I do look at something else I just wanted to know if there were any good sites to look at. I recall a site a long time back that had the most common repairs per make but can't find it anymore.

[indymanjoe]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

No link needed, just buy a Toyota or Hyundai/Kia

All those so-called "reports" are biased. Wasn't it JD Powers that said GM was more reliable than Toyota? LMAO!

And they use customer feelings. Just because you didnt read the owners manual doesnt make it a POS

[mgarblik]

I work on allot of Traverse, (s?). Seem to be a favorite around here. Vehicle has had some upgrades over the last 3-4 years. Early ones, 2010-2012, I would stay away from. Unless you know the complete history as far as service. The 3.6L engine used in a wide swath of GM vehicles has a mixed history that can be traced directly to service history. It's the same deal as it has been the last 100 years! If the customer changes the damn oil and filter, the engine is just fine. Push those oil changes, use cheap oil and filters and the engine becomes a thrashing, chain grinding, chain guide and tensioner chewing, oil burning pile of crap. GM is partly to blame. They kept tweaking the algorithm for the oil change interval, stretching it out way too long. A module re-flash brought it back to semi-reality. I insist my customers have their oil changed on these engines at 50% oil life remaining, which is 6000-7500 miles. The factory pushes it to 15K and wonders why the piston rings stick and the vehicles burns a quart of oil at 700 miles? I have had multiple Traverse customers bring their cars in with NO OIL showing on the dipstick multiple times. Wonder why those plastic timing chain guides at the very top of the engine wear away? Early models also had significant power steering rack issues which are hard to remove and replace, various difficult to track down electrical gremlins and battery drains. Of course you need to drive one and see what you think about the vehicle dynamics. I find them to drive just horrible. They feel like a full size school bus to drive. Drive bigger than a Suburban, but some people like that, I suppose. I work on a clientele of older drivers. Seems like every Traverse I work on has front end damage from bonking into something! IMO, there are many, many better choices out there. But everyone has their favorite brand, so I fix them all.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

No link needed, just buy a Toyota or Hyundai/Kia

All those so-called "reports" are biased. Wasn't it JD Powers that said GM was more reliable than Toyota? LMAO!

JD Powers only reports what the actual vehicle owners report about the cars they purchased new.

If we want to hear a biased opinion, we can ask for your comments.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Its the plastic door handles, visors, mirrors, AC vent parts that will grind your gears.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by The Champ

JD Powers only reports what the actual vehicle owners report about the cars they purchased new.

If we want to hear a biased opinion, we can ask for your comments.

Butthurt much? Maybe you should buy a Toyota.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Its the plastic door handles, visors, mirrors, AC vent parts that will grind your gears.

If you want to own a Chevy, that's been standard equipment for as long as they have been building cars. That's why they were the very bottom rung of the GM ladder. 1 Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac with few exceptions. For once, Chevy seemed to follow orders, be the cheap ones! And the Traverse is a BIG vehicle. Lots of polymers gave their lives to build each one!

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Its the plastic door handles, visors, mirrors, AC vent parts that will grind your gears.

Doesn't that describe most cars of any make for the last 20 years or more?

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Consumer Reports Magazine both print and on-line have been keeping records for over 50 years on vehicle reliability. But as in all things, understand the source and results. Their reliability data comes from THEIR readers and subscribers. Every 6-months they survey them for reliability of all kinds of items including vehicles. They never publish exactly how they weigh the individual answers. I still think it's useful to establish general trends and locate true duds. One of many tools. The print annual auto issue is out now. Might be worth a look. In general, the big three Asian brands do very well. An exception the past several years is Acura, which is puzzling since they are a Honda. But a great example of the possible flaws in their methods. Since it is essentially a complex customer satisfaction survey, Acura owners expectations must be much higher than a regular Honda owner. So no survey is perfect.

I drove 1 Honda and 2 Acuras over 700,000 miles (my wife had another Acura for 10 years), and their weak spot has always been their electrical systems. Not such a big deal 20 years ago - replace the radios, dash lights, electric antennas, etc. Today, now that everything is electronic, it’s a total nightmare. My last Acura went 170,000 miles in three transmissions, three radios, 2 NAV systems (had to ship it out to get it rebuilt), 6 headlight ballasts (have to take the whole front end of the car off to get to it), and had a bad “app sensor” that was very hard to diagnose since the scanner was lying to the mechanic. When I traded the car in, nothing electrical worked (I had replaced all the instrument panel leds, and half of them were burned out again, the Bluetooth and voice activation had crapped out, etc.)

I’m pretty sure this has led to their rapid decline down the list. An Acura will, on average, have more electronic goodies than a Honda - all those goodies will be going bad in short order.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

I drove 1 Honda and 2 Acuras over 700,000 miles (my wife had another Acura for 10 years), and their weak spot has always been their electrical systems. Not such a big deal 20 years ago - replace the radios, dash lights, electric antennas, etc. Today, now that everything is electronic, it’s a total nightmare. My last Acura went 170,000 miles in three transmissions, three radios, 2 NAV systems (had to ship it out to get it rebuilt), 6 headlight ballasts (have to take the whole front end of the car off to get to it), and had a bad “app sensor” that was very hard to diagnose since the scanner was lying to the mechanic. When I traded the car in, nothing electrical worked (I had replaced all the instrument panel leds, and half of them were burned out again, the Bluetooth and voice activation had crapped out, etc.)

I’m pretty sure this has led to their rapid decline down the list. An Acura will, on average, have more electronic goodies than a Honda - all those goodies will be going bad in short order.

Well Acura's problems could be real based on your experience. I see probably 20 Honda's in the shop to 1 Acura. I will say that the electronics in the late model Honda's are not great either. Very low quality components, motors, switch gear, wiring, connectors and modules. A real shame too. Because they do know how to build one heck of a good 4-cylinder engine. IMO, the rest of the vehicle is middle of the pack. BTW, APP sensors, (accelerator position sensors) are failing in huge numbers across all brands. Just replaced one in an Impala yesterday. In stock, on the shelf at a NAPA store. Made by Dorman. Dorman doesn't make any parts unless there is a large pattern failure where they can make thousands and thousands of them.

[Chris65LeMans]

It’s not the app sensor crapping out that made me mad - it was that the computer lied to the code sensor. It told my mechanic the problem was a bad throttle body, and he replaced the thing 3 times. I suggested we try something else, and found an Acura forum that pointed me in the right direction.

This was a few years before I bought my Pontiac and started working on my own cars again.

It’s too bad, too - my first Honda was a ‘95 Civic that I once drove top speed (115 mph) for 14 straight hours (including lunch breaks, gas stops and replacing a blown tire past Sacramento.) between LA and Portland. I could not kill that thing, and put 250,000 miles on it with zero major repairs - although the radio crapped out after just 2 years. Besides wear items, that was the only component that I ever had to replace, and I drove that thing hard. I’d bet 50,000 of those miles were over 110mph, and the little 1.5 L motor redlined at 7,000 - and needed all of that to get moving.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

Butthurt much? Maybe you should buy a Toyota.

Butthurt? Not me.

I did buy a Toyota once. It had a very solid engine, but overall wasn't very reliable. It also rusted more than any vehicle I've ever owned. I had to put a sheet of 1/2 plywood in the box so I didn't fall through the bed floor. I went back to GM products have found them to be much better products.

Maybe you should buy a new Chevy and see first hand the reliability and dependability..

[rohrt]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I work on allot of Traverse, (s?). Seem to be a favorite around here. Vehicle has had some upgrades over the last 3-4 years. Early ones, 2010-2012, I would stay away from. Unless you know the complete history as far as service. The 3.6L engine used in a wide swath of GM vehicles has a mixed history that can be traced directly to service history. It's the same deal as it has been the last 100 years! If the customer changes the damn oil and filter, the engine is just fine. Push those oil changes, use cheap oil and filters and the engine becomes a thrashing, chain grinding, chain guide and tensioner chewing, oil burning pile of crap. GM is partly to blame. They kept tweaking the algorithm for the oil change interval, stretching it out way too long. A module re-flash brought it back to semi-reality. I insist my customers have their oil changed on these engines at 50% oil life remaining, which is 6000-7500 miles. The factory pushes it to 15K and wonders why the piston rings stick and the vehicles burns a quart of oil at 700 miles? I have had multiple Traverse customers bring their cars in with NO OIL showing on the dipstick multiple times. Wonder why those plastic timing chain guides at the very top of the engine wear away? Early models also had significant power steering rack issues which are hard to remove and replace, various difficult to track down electrical gremlins and battery drains. Of course you need to drive one and see what you think about the vehicle dynamics. I find them to drive just horrible. They feel like a full size school bus to drive. Drive bigger than a Suburban, but some people like that, I suppose. I work on a clientele of older drivers. Seems like every Traverse I work on has front end damage from bonking into something! IMO, there are many, many better choices out there. But everyone has their favorite brand, so I fix them all.

Exactly what I wanted to know.
Thanks


What are the better choices? IYO

[61-63]

Toyota trucks are great if you like your truck having the frame rot out from under it.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by 61-63

Toyota trucks are great if you like your truck having the frame rot out from under it.

About 3 months ago, I bought a Toyota Truck that had the frame replaced recently as you mentioned. $1500.00. It had around 250,000 miles on it and ran just great. Really nice interior too. From what I could tell, when the dealers replaced the frames on those trucks, they were like a "fitted frame". Meaning all the fuel lines, brake lines, cab mounts, parking brake cables and other stuff was new too. Must have cost Toyota a fortune to change all those. I owned the truck less than 1 day. I was putting gas in it at the station and the previous For Sale sign was still in it. Guy walks up and wanted it more than I did. Made money, everyone was happy.

As far as the OP's question, what would be better than a Traverse in my opinion? Have to ask a couple questions. Are there any brands you would not consider American or foreign? Do you have to have 3 row seating? Does FWD, RWD or AWD matter? General engine size? Model year range? Price range?