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Site Index or
Quick Jumps or
Search Engine Directory or
The MartPreface
and Overview
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Preface
My fascination with motor vehicles began in 1982. In the fall of that year, my wife and I planned a trip to California. The itinerary included a couple of days in San Francisco, several days in the High Sierra and a day, or so, in Death Valley.
On arrival in San Francisco, we planned to take advantage of the $100-per-week car rental that National Car Rental offered. When we came to the rental desk, the lady told us that all of the General Motors vehicles at that rental rate were out, but she had a Honda that she could substitute at the same rental rate. As I had no experience with made in Japan motor vehicles, I quickly responded by asking her whether the car was new. After she reassured me that it was, I decided that the risk was acceptable. It was to be one of my life’s momentous decisions.
Driving this Honda was roughly akin to stepping into an alternate universe. Within the first minute, I was stunned by the quietness and smoothness of its operation. After two hours, equally so by its comfort. And by the end of the trip, I had a burning desire to dump the 1980 GM product that I owned and buy a made in Japan automobile as soon as circumstances permitted.
The first task was to find out whether all made in Japan motor vehicles were of “another universe.” From the Consumer Reports reliability tables, it seemed clear that the alternate universe was then restricted to Toyotas and Hondas, with the Corolla in a very distant galaxy of that alternate universe. This permitted me to narrow my inquiry to a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Accord.
By December 1983, I had decided to purchase a 1984 Corolla liftback; in February 1984, I placed my order; in May 1984, I took possession. My expectations with regard to smoothness, quietness and comfort were satisfied.
Year after year passed with the smoothness, quietness, comfort and reliability of my 1984 Corolla remaining intact. And to my amazement, it did not fall apart in a zillion, or so, different ways within the first 100,000 miles, as all of my Big Three experiences suggested was the natural certainty for every motor vehicle made by man. It was and is as durable as it was and is reliable. And at about 22 1/2 years and 500,798 miles, it is about as (for me, more) enjoyable to drive now as (than) when it was new.
At the same time, whether by observing the sights and sounds on the street corner or in the car, by browsing the remarks or reliability tables in Consumer Reports, or by conversing with Big Three owners or persons with Big Three driving or riding experiences, one could witness the persistence of the shortcomings and failures of Big Three engineered vehicles. Indeed, the great gulf between the Reliable Two and the Big Three, by some measures and in some product categories, actually widened. And despite this, the new car market share of the Big Three dwindled rather negligibly. As this contradiction seemed to have numerous ramifications to the U.S., to other nations and to groups within and without the U.S., I decided in the fall of 1998 to put together an annual motor vehicle review. After composing three such annual reviews, I decided in early 2001 to assemble a website offering automobile information not easily obtainable or found. The Auto on Info website was inaugurated April 29, 2001.
When I began composing the first annual auto review, news coverage regarding automobile reliability bore little or no semblance to reality. The September 2001 article in the Auto News, Analysis, and Editorial section and page 23 of the 2001 Auto Review give an appreciation as to how much this had changed. However, these early and rather timid steps toward frank reporting came to an abrupt end, and today's auto news reporting, save Auto on Info's, has rather completely reverted to that of a decade ago, at least as best site manager is able to determine.
Overview
1. Auto Information
a. Auto Reliability
The Reliability Menu page provides annotated links to several measures of reliability, including the Reliability Index Values and Averages, the Reliability Percentranks, the Reliability Grades - High Standards, the Reliability Grades - Exacting Standards, and the Reliability Scores. The Reliability Index Values and Averages Menu page provides annotated links to many charts and tables providing or depicting Reliability Index Values for individual models and Reliability Index Averages for lines, manufacturers, and groups of manufacturers. The Reliability Percentrank Menu page provides annotated links to many tables, including (a) Table I-MVRP which gives the Reliability Percentranks of nearly all models sold in North America for model years 1988 to 2003, as well as 1998-2002 averages, (b) separate tables for small cars, sports cars, sporty cars, coupes, family cars, large cars, cars marketed as upscale, cars marketed as luxury, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and pickups, (c) separate tables for the best of 1988, the worst of 1988, the best of 1989, the worst of 1989, the best of 1990, the worst of 1990, the best of 1991, the worst of 1991, the best of 1992, the worst of 1992, the best of 1993, the worst of 1993, the best of 1994, the worst of 1994, the best of 1995, the worst of 1995, the best of 1996, the worst of 1996, the best of 1997, the worst of 1997, the best of 1998, the worst of 1998, the best of 1999, the worst of 1999, the best of 2000, the worst of 2000, the best of 2001, the worst of 2001, the best of 2002, the worst of 2002, the best of 2003, and the worst of 2003, (d) a summary of the best and worst tables, and (e) a chart summary of the 2006 updates of the best and worst tables. The Reliability Grades - High Standards Menu Page and the Reliability Grades - Exacting Standards Menu Page provide links to many of the same categories of tables that the Reliability Percentrank Menu page offers. All of the foregoing reliability measures are based on Consumer Reports data.
The Reliability Menu page also provides links to two off site sources of reliability information. One is the Canadian Automobile Association's 21st Annual Vehicle Ownership Survey Results. The other is an AutoWeb.com.au article entitled "Toyota Trumps in Used Car Survey" summarizing a survey by Australia's Royal Automobile Club of Victoria.
b. Auto Durability
There are currently six durability web pages on Auto on Info. For each, the data source is different (but with some overlap for pages 2 and 4), although the evidentiary values of all point in the same direction. The data for the second durability web page was generated by site manager in what was likely the first significant automotive survey done entirely on the internet.
2. Galleries and Rosters
There are several galleries and rosters for high mileage Toyota and Lexus motor vehicles and one roster for 200,000+ mile Volvo motor vehicles, one for similarly high mileage BMW motor vehicles, one for similarly high mileage Mercedes-Benz vehicles, one for similarly high mileage Subaru vehicles, one for similarly high mileage Honda and Acura vehicles, one for similarly high mileage Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, and one for similarly high mileage motor vehicles by Mazda, Suzuki, Hyundai, Saab, Isuzu, Volkswagen, the Big Three, and other manufacturers not specifically listed above. In addition, there is a roster that lists vehicles of all manufacturers with 300,000 or more miles.
3. Highlights
This page summarizes the highlights of this website.
4. Auto Questionnaires
These questionnaires permit every visitor, who owns a motor vehicle, to share his/her automotive experiences. There are questionnaires applicable to all automobile owners and other more specialized questionnaires.
5. Results from the 2001 Survey of current owners of high mileage Toyotas listed on internet galleries or rosters
This web page provides a fairly complete summary of this first, and likely historically important, internet survey.
6. Auto Quizzes
These will test your auto knowledge.
7. Three domain names: http://www.autooninfo.net, http://www.autooninfo.info, and http://www.autooninfo.org
The Auto on Info website currently spans three domains and has a different web host for each domain. Each of the three domains has basic informational contents that should be sufficient to permit sound judgmental decision making, in the absence of access to the remaining two. All three of the domains will include (1) the Reliability Index Values and Averages section, (2) the Durability section, and the following pages: (3) TableI-MVRP - giving the Reliability Percentranks for individual models and Percentrank averages for lines and manufacturers, (4) Table I-MVRGH - giving the Reliability Grades - High Standards for individual models and averages for lines and manufacturers, (5) Table I-MVRGE - giving the Reliability Grades - Exacting Standards for individual models and averages for lines and manufacturers, (6) Auto Manufacturer Awards and Honors, and (7) Milestones in Automotive Quality.
The current segmentation is prompted by the size of the site; simply, FrontPage is not equipped to handle very large sites in an efficient manner.
The domain www.autooninfo.net is the original Auto on Info address. This domain will provide the many detailed tables and charts of Reliability Percentranks and Percentrank averages, as well as the Galleries and Rosters of high mileage vehicles.
The domain www.autooninfo.info is Auto on Info's second address; it was initially introduced to provide all of the current pages of the site. This domain will now provide the many detailed tables of Reliability Grades.
The domain www.autooninfo.org is Auto on Info's newest address. This domain will now provide the auto quality news section..
Site manager recommends adding pages from all three domains to one of the visitor's "favorites" folder menus to ensure access to information, for two reasons. Firstly, if one domain is down, the other domains may be accessed. Although both of the first two domains have been down for several days, the domains have not been down coincidentally. Secondly, the Google search engine has recently (since late 2004) favored the original domain and no longer lists URLs from the second domain on results pages. Consequently, the visitor may have to "search the search engines" to access the domains that are not down, when one is. (See Search Engine Directory page for strengths and weaknesses of, comments on, and links to the major international search engines.) Although every web user should have, for ease of information access in trying circumstances, a file folder containing the query pages for eight or more search engines, most don't and for such finding the domain that is up may be a challenge, if a page from each of the three domains is not in a favorites folder menu.
Finally, applicable Auto on Info's web pages will provide links to auto manufacturers or related businesses, such as dealerships, which wish to rebut, or take issue with, any part of the materials on this site. The hope is that in the end this too will help in providing more valuable information for consumers.
The above preface and overview sections of this page were last updated 27 October 2006.
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| Topic Links |
| Milestones in Automotive Quality |
| The Bottom Line on Auto Reliability |
| Summary of the Best and Worst |
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Auto on Info Standings for Selected Search Phrases |
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| Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto Quality Information | Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto Reliability Information | Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto Durability Information | Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase Auto Complaints | Site Rank in Results for Search Phrase High Mileage Rosters | ||||||||||
| First by Google from 772,000 results | First by Google from 355,000 results | First by Google from 117,000 results | First by Google from 311,000 results | First by Google from 1,710 results | ||||||||||
| First by alltheweb from 2,806,418 results | First by alltheweb from 416,178 results | First by alltheweb from 54,017 results | Fourth by alltheweb from 403,423 results | First by alltheweb from 1,176 results | ||||||||||
| Fourth by MSN Search from 857,935 results | First by MSN Search from 141,674 results | First by MSN Search from 28,424 results | Tenth by MSN Search from 185,916 results | First by MSN Search from 974 results | ||||||||||
| Fourth by Ask Jeeves | First by Ask Jeeves | First by Ask Jeeves | Sixth by Ask Jeeves | First by Ask Jeeves | ||||||||||
| Standings are as of 27/08/2002. | ||||||||||||||
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