According to Car Care Clues.

 

 

Consumer Reports December issue is traditionally the "Automotive Report Card," issue which features readers/users reliability ratings for cars.

Toyota and Honda are still among the best being made, but I don't think the new ones are as durable as those made in the early 2000's.

I bought a Nissan Frontier truck which uses a simple, tried and true 3.8L V6 and simple drive train - no turbo, variable compression, CVT, etc. which is just more stuff that can break.

One of the reasons many cars manufactured for the U.S. market are so bad is that the silly govt. mileage requirements forced manufacturers to use all manner of tricks to get the larger U.S. engines to meet those standards.  Instead of designing and using smaller engines like European cars, they just cram complicated tech onto existing engines to reduce fuel consumption, or they use a smaller engine but add a turbo for increased power.  A lot of large trucks in the U.S. now use 4-cyl engines with turbos instead of naturally powerful V6 or V8 engines, this way they can advertise high horsepower and fuel efficiency as the turbo only really kicks in at high RPM.

The #1 thing one can do to increase vehicle engine life is change the oil and filter at least every 4,000 miles and preferably every 3,000 miles.

Dave

13 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Instead of designing and using smaller engines like European cars, they just cram complicated tech onto existing engines to reduce fuel consumption, or they use a smaller engine but add a turbo for increased power. 

 

Lots of small engine cars in Europe have turbos' Dave. A great way of extracting better performance from a small engine. Turbos are old technology that don't add much to complexity. 

True re small engines in Europe, in fact its been shrinking over recent years. 1.5 is the average, 1.0 litres is about the smallest. 

21 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

The #1 thing one can do to increase vehicle engine life is change the oil and filter at least every 4,000 miles and preferably every 3,000 miles.

 

5000 to 7000 miles with modern cars but can be a lot longer than that with synthetic oils. Paying attention to the manufacturers owners manual is best. Im not sure if more frequent that every 5000 is advantageous or not.

2009 Ford 2ltr TDFI still going strong timing belt belt change due at 150,000 mile as per manual, dam thing thing will outlast me.

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

Paying attention to the manufacturers owners manual is best. 

This is absolutely not the best.
In many cases, ludicrously long oil change intervals of up to 20,000 miles have proved to
drastically shorten engine life.

Similar supposed fuel saving devices such as Stop Start technology have been shown to drastically shorten
the life of turochargers, that continue to spin in some circumstances at high rpm after their oil supply has
been cut off by the stop start killing the engine.

Add to that DPFs that clog up, EGR valves that fill the engine oil with soot and you have the reason
today's diesel engines have a much shorter life aathen they should have and are far less reliable.

The idea of a 1 litre petrol engine with a massive turbo might look good on paper, but they have been
beset by other problems, such as the idiotic "wet" timing belt, head gasket failure, premature turbo failure.
PSA have a 1.2 equally faulty petrol engine, Land Rover have an Ingenium engine with prematurely failing
timing chains, now at the back of the engine and prematurely failing turbo chargers.

All this in Europe, where the average car only does a fraction of the miles racked up in the US.
 

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

 

5000 to 7000 miles with modern cars but can be a lot longer than that with synthetic oils. Paying attention to the manufacturers owners manual is best. Im not sure if more frequent that every 5000 is advantageous or not.

Hmmm...nothing that magical about synthetic oils.

Ludicrously long oil change schedules exist because twenty years ago cars from the Far East appeared with warranty periods up to three, four or five years.

For the big European manufacturers like Ford, Vauxhall/Opel, VW, Renault and Fiat this presented a problem. They had to offer longer warranties to compete.

However, the longer the warranty period, the more often the cars would be in the hands of the main dealers for servicing. During the warranty period the dealers would go through these cars looking for faults that could be fixed under warranty. The cost of this warranty work was borne by the manufacturer.

By extending the service interval the manufacturers could still offer long warranty periods but also keep the cars out of the hands of their dealer network; thus saving millions on potential warranty claims.

Dave is right. The best thing for long term engine care is frequent oil and filter changes.

Never had a car problem due to engine lubrication issues.  Always something else.  Worst was auto trans failing.  Second worse was failed air bag computer.  I guess turbo bearing lube can be an issue due to heat, not condition of the lube.

 

Today your electronics will be the life-limiting factor on cars, not engine mechanical.  Saw YT of a ford f-150 owner, $5k repair bill due to damage caused by water intrusion into one of the tail light assemblies.  Wiped out a lot of electronics resulting in no-start condition.  (The network was overloaded with false electronic noise that prevented the engine start circuitry from activating.) 

I have a bit over 440,000 miles on my 2012 Honda Civic and it is still going strong!

Maintenance in my both my EVs is a nightmare … I had to change the HEPA filter in the glove box at 30,000 miles … $15!!

9 hours ago, martin-w said:

Lots of small engine cars in Europe have turbos' Dave. A great way of extracting better performance from a small engine. Turbos are old technology that don't add much to complexity. 

Turbochargers put more stress on the engine with higher heat and pressure, which can wear down components faster and increase the likelihood of other problems like leaks.

Turbochargers also do fail occasionally, requiring costly repair.

I prefer a simpler naturally aspirated engine.

Dave

4 hours ago, SayAgain said:

Maintenance in my both my EVs is a nightmare … I had to change the HEPA filter in the glove box at 30,000 miles … $15!!

Wait until you have to replace a battery or motor, which will happen eventually.

To be fair, ICE vehicle repairs are also very expensive nowadays.

Dave

8 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Turbochargers put more stress on the engine with higher heat and pressure, which can wear down components faster and increase the likelihood of other problems like leaks.

Turbochargers also do fail occasionally, requiring costly repair.

I prefer a simpler naturally aspirated engine.

Dave

 

Yep, fair point. Modern cars are built for forced induction though. 

Nothing wrong with simplicity when considering reliability. As some engineers say, the best part is no part. 

Complex vehicles can be reliable, though. My daughter now has a Toyota hybrid, so technologically complex, but they are very reliable, apparently. Great to drive, too.

 

Regarding EV's, Tesla batteries are warranted between 100,000 miles and 150,000 miles, dependent on model, I understand. Not sure about motors. 

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by martin-w