911 rated among least reliable....

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/aut...ble/index.html

Believable...

a solara's a sports car now! whatever- i remember reading awile back that the boxster and 911 were one of the most reliable, depends on who you believe

There was a on-going thread on 6speed as well but most ppl there don't seem to respect much of Consumer Report's views. BTW - they are talking about the 997s...all I know is when I researched my 996, they were all very well reviewed and considered reliable which is why I went with this car.

My 2000 was #1 in initial quality from JD Powers. In 6 years, I have replaced 1 cam oil seal and the silly hinge on the center console. Tires and brakes too. I used to have a 97 Honda Civic. I owned it for about 4 years, and had to replace CV joints, the window lifter, the battery, and brakes often enough that my Porsche brakes are cheaper per mile. Not to mention how much wear the Civic showed in less miles and shorter time. Aside from my Lexus RX330, the 996 is the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned ... /shrug

....As my car sits on a lift awaiting its new engine....

JC3D- sorry man- that can be anyone of us- I have had mostly trouble free experience with Porsche but you never know-

I remember reading numerous Car & Driver articles on long-term Porsche 911 tests (40,000 miles). They were always replacing something small on those cars. Seat belt here, plastic handle there...always something, but something small. Never and engine or clutch or brakes. So these results might include any time the car goes into the shop for repair...

Funny, just recently it was posted that Porsche was #1. I guess it all comes down to what report you DECIDE to put stock in.

I sold my S2000 for a 2000 996.... It's all about Performances now, is it not..... Car/Driver 10Best Performers, 2000* Acceleration, 0 to 60 mph Porsche 911 Turbo, 3.9 sec Street start, 5 to 60 mph BMW Z8 and Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0, 4.7 sec Quarter-mile Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0, 12.2 sec @ 122 mph Top-gear acceleration** Jaguar XKR and Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG, 6.1 sec Top speed Porsche 911 Turbo, 192 mph Braking, 70 to 0 mph Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 152 feet Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 0.98 g Interior sound level @ 70 mph BMW 528i, Lexus GS300, and Lexus LS430, 65 dBA

The problem with the quality surveys is that they don't tell us about their methodolgy. Some merely count the number of problems reported on the sampled cars. So if one model had 20 reported problems and another had 10 in the sampled group, the one with ten has superior quality, notwithstanding the nature of the problem. A customer complaing about a rattle or squeak shouldn't count the same as an oil leak or worse yet a blown engine. I don't put a lot of weight on a quality report, until I determine how the report was developed.

In the end, those are just reports, one would be in Pcars favors, others not, but in the end we all love our cars for its performance, quality and iconic image. Do you guys really care about those reports? I think not... Just enjoy our cars Cheers,

Lay off the Pipe. I don't know what their criteria is, but the list is loaded with MB's and the Vette as less reliable than the 997 (I can't bear to call that boy-racer Solstice a sports car). I thought that MB's reliability was even more stellar than our Pcars. I'm not a Vette guy, but I wasn't aware of any issues with them as well. I know they're referring to the 997, but I just read that,in addition to reliability/satisfaction, the 911 has one of the highest re-sale values. As Mr. Twain said, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.�

There are two problems with consumer reports... 1. They seem to never compare apples to apples. A 911 vs. 'Vette comparision is fair. A 911 vs. Camry Solara is not. The main reason I say this is not fair is that the average 911 driver is going to drive their car MUCH harder than the average Solara driver. In fact I bet that if you drive a Solara as hard as most of us drive our 911s, it would be in the shop every few weeks. 2. My understanding is that consumer reports bases most of its results on reports from actual consumers (hence the name). But once again this is an apples and oranges approach. Due to the cars being compared you are comparing feedback from the "I can afford almost any car, and expect perfection for my $80k+, so every minor problem gets to me" crowd with feedback from the "I just barely managed to budget this new car and it is perfection on wheels for me" group. I am not intending to sound elitist. I just realize that I have been in both groups over the years and remember when I used to have a different perception of quality than I do today.

I got a new engine earlier this year too after only 5k miles. Car is at the shop right now for the 10th time for excessive rattles. It is a 2004 that I bought new last year. I drive it daily, but considering the cost of these cars count me incredibly unimpressed with the build quality. I had a freaking Mustang GT back in 1989 that cost 14k and after 160k miles had fewer rattles and trips to the shop than my 911 has had in 1 year. Luckily I have an extended warranty on this car, but I do not see keeping it past the warranty period if this is how it is going to go. If they do not fix the freaking excessive rattling once and for all I may not keep it past another month.

Nah, MB's quality has been in the toilet for a number of years. I believe that a large part of it is due to their technology-for-technology's-sake design principles. E.g. major brake design problems recently.

I don't know what the other experiences have been but my 02 has very few if any rattles...and I'm on Bilstien coilovers... Perhaps you just got unlucky with yours

MB is in trouble here as they decided to build down to a price after years of quality over engineering. BMW outsells them here in Germany now in the mid range cars. Porsche always comes in the top 3 of least faults after 3, 5, and 7 years in the German TUV test so I don't know what that report was based on. I find it hard to believe they just send the bad cars to the US..... .....on the other hand.....maybe the Germans do have a sense of humour !!!

Just Google "Mercedes-Benz recall" and "Mercedes-Benz reliability" and you'll find quite a few owners that have had it up to "here" with MB.

Goes to show how far "rep" will carry you. I've never had an interest in MB, so I guess I've missed anything really bad. I should have guessed that, with "Dr. Z" at Chrysler, the quality would suffer Thanks for clearing that up.

Quality means different things to different people and JD Powers rates bad cupholder design the same as bad engine gear carrier design.

Irish, Actually it's not a case of sending bad cars to the USA, it's a case of sending different cars to the USA. The US versions are different and more complicated than the normal ROW version. Secondary air injection is one area. The US versions use different fuels, different oils and operate in a different environment. Expectations and views on things like reliability are also quite different. In my data gathered so far from 996 owners and survey/reliability data gathers in my continuing research for my 996 book I have to generally agree with what has been posted in this report regarding the 996 reliability in the USA by model year. The data I already have from Dekra, the UK dealerships and others show quite a difference between the European and American experiences. The odd man out is the UK experience which seems to be the closest to the American experience. I would use the phrases "Consumer expectations", "Dealership relations", "Model differences", "Financing", "Resolution methods", "Driving environment", "Usage" to provide a basic overview of the major differences between the European versus American experiences regarding Porsche ownership and especially reliability issues. The UK for some reason tends to sit in the middle. I am trying to work out why. I have my theories, but I need more data before I can provide my conclusions. By the way this is nothing new either. You will almost always find with any complicated product that there are different problems which strike users/owners in different parts of the world. 28 years of operating in the aircraft industry proved this to me. We had problems which never occurred in the USA and they had problems which never occurred on our aircraft. Ciao, Adrian.

I have a great deal of respect for MB, and I don't completely discount the build quality. My sister has a C240 and my Mom just bought a Crossfire (Chrysler, yes, but many MB components, including the platform, engine, etc.). My personal opinion is that MB does luxury almost better than anyone else. But, like some early 911's, you have to be careful to stay away from the "problem cars" and get a good car and try to get lucky.