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They should have a site called driver complaints, where you put the state, the license plate #, the make/model of car, and if possible, the gender/age range/race of the driver. Complain about their driving.
Nothing like building bias right into the review with a whiner name like that. If one really starts digging behind a lot of car problems it's normally operator error.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarComplaints
Really, what do you base that on? I own the site in question, came across this thread in an alert. I don't agree at all, having worked on cars & having processed literally tens of thousands of complaints as the site was getting started 13 years ago. There are far more defective vehicles than bad drivers -- err let me clarify that -- bad drivers that cause mechanical damage to their cars.
Simply put, the massive number of problems reported for known defects is far greater than the random complaints here & there that may (or may not be) operator-caused. Unless you don't believe in known defects. Then I can't help explain things.
Rofl^^^^^
CarComplaints.com is a good place to go see if a certain cars year is have recurring problems.
This site save me from buying a 2001 Honda Civic.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I checked most all of the cars I have had and a couple of them were right on, but when only 2-3 people reported it you cannot really consider this data that tells you anything about a car. Maybe in a few years if they catch on and get more reports it could be useful.
It is spot on for wife's '03 Accord V6. Besides the climate control, stereo dash unit already gone out ( expensive to fix), we have the transmission failure to look forward to. Debating whether to get rid of it before that happens. Has 85K
The data is basically meaningless. There is no statistical normalization that would normalize the number of complaints to a specific car relative to the number of that specific car sold.
There are 500 complaints about the Jetta, but only 10 about the Touareg. Does that mean the Touareg is much better vehicle? I don't know. All I know from my observation, there are significantly more Jettas on the street than Touaregs. So, it is far more likely that the total number of complaints will be higher for Jettas than for Touaregs, because more Jettas are in service and could potentially fail, in turn, leading to a complaint.
Even if you normalize the number of complaints relative to the number of vehicles, one vehicle by its design will be driven and used differently than another leading to different numbers of complaints. So, for example, getting more complaint about a work truck vs a high-end sports car wouldn't surprise.
Even different warranty periods would affect the results.
Sorry, but the website seems to say actually nothing useful other than providing anecdotal summaries.
I just found this site for the first time today - Car Complaints. com - it is pretty cool- you can see a graph showing the years that any car make and model has the most complaints. This confirms for me why my car has done so well for so long - for its make, model, and year, it has some of the lowest complaints on record in the past 18 years.
I have been thinking about getting a used Camry at some point, and it is clear from that site that I should never consider one made in 2007- that is the worst year for complaints on record by far.
I do wonder though how increased reporting of complaints has changed over the years due to sites like this on the internet and how that skews the data....
The 2008 Honda Accord has almost 10 times the number of complaints as the 2007 Toyota Camry.
The data is basically meaningless. There is no statistical normalization that would normalize the number of complaints to a specific car relative to the number of that specific car sold.
There are 500 complaints about the Jetta, but only 10 about the Touareg. Does that mean the Touareg is much better vehicle? I don't know. All I know from my observation, there are significantly more Jettas on the street than Touaregs. So, it is far more likely that the total number of complaints will be higher for Jettas than for Touaregs, because more Jettas are in service and could potentially fail, in turn, leading to a complaint.
Even if you normalize the number of complaints relative to the number of vehicles, one vehicle by its design will be driven and used differently than another leading to different numbers of complaints. So, for example, getting more complaint about a work truck vs a high-end sports car wouldn't surprise.
Even different warranty periods would affect the results.
Sorry, but the website seems to say actually nothing useful other than providing anecdotal summaries.
Well, no, think about what the data is telling you. We're not trying to be statistically perfect, but the data is accurate & useful.
Look at the relative difference in complaints, per vehicle. For the Jetta, say 400 complaints are for transmission versus 10 complaints in 10 other categories each. So, our graph says transmission problems are 40 times more likely to occur than anything else for that Jetta. Does it matter that you don't know exactly how many Jettas are on the road vs the Toureg? No... now you'd go to the Toureg & make the same evaluation -- does one category or specific problem stand out as a major defect, or is everything pretty even & benign?
Stay away from mistakenly comparing straight complaint totals across vehicles & you'll do okay. This is how the NHTSA evaluates defect trends as well. It's a solid method if you use the data correctly.
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