I deal with the potential for self-selection bias by collecting data going forward (with the minor exception of the very month someone joins). People might sign up because they had a lot of repairs in the past, but in general these are not reportable on the main survey.

I have a second "Repair History Survey" for people who want to post every repair their vehicle has required.

I haven't tried to do any especially fancy analyses yet, both because the sample sizes are currently small and because I'm doing nearly everything myself and my time is limited. I do plan to do more as these limitations diminish.

On the other topics in this thread: I've often heard the same thing, but don't know how true it is. I can offer that most of the things that fail in the first 3-5 years of a car's life are not things that can be maintained. Lots of electrical. Once past 100k miles maintenance probably makes more of a difference.

I do not currently ask about maintenance for two reasons. First, it would require more work from participants. Second, I suspect it would be like when the dentist asks how often you floss your teeth. Many people will lie, or simply avoid going to the dentist.

CR's methods have major limitatons, but not ones people often suspect. I've written about these here:

Seven serious problems with Consumer Reports

 

Hi from New Zealand!
Well, we are on on the OPPOSITE side of the world from where these LRs are made and my experience is if ya don't use genuine or better parts these trucks will cost a'truck load'to fix! The otherside of this is 'cos we are so far away it can a little while get bits if there has been a run on things. But I don't care, I like that sticker under the bonnet with the Land Rover Genuine Parts and that's what I use unless I can get a better or equivalent (as in OEM) part. Then and only then do I not have any problems. I have the same problem, people love my cars when I sell them too as most are too mean to fix them to the same level.
My 10c

 

Well safe to say I have never owned a Chevy or a GM made vehicle. I don't plan on buying one here in the near future. I have never been a fan of how they drive due to the dead feeling in the steering.

I purchased my Land Rover back in September of 2007 with 112,000 miles on the clock. It was high miles and needed a little work. Within a few months I had a power steering pump go out. Not unheard of a vehicle with that many miles and for the age. Now I am having SLS issues and am planning on rebuilding the whole system. Lots of people say that is a Land Rover. One problem fixed and on to the next. I look back on the six months that I drove it on a daily basis and that is all the repairs I have had. It currently has 135,000 on the clock. For any vehicle that could handle that amount of mileage in six months is built like a tank.

To back up my last statement I have a 2008 Ford Escape that I have been driving since February and about 20,000 on the clock. I have had some really strange issues with mine. One in my area for my co workers already had died was out for a week.

I think everyone here is right. You have to want to maintain the vehicle. I change the oil once a month spark plugs every six. If anything is acting up and strange I find out what and why and get it fixed. I have owned Hondas, Fords, Dodges, and a Volkswagen. All vehicles need repairs through out their lives. Some people just do them and not worry about them. I have friends that never do anything with their vehiclesthat is'ntgas and tires.
Then they wonder why they have a transmission failure or engine seized.

That is how I look at vehicles. I like to wrench and rebuild my own. So I don’t see a problem with a little hiccup here and there. Just means it is time for a beer and relaxing with a wrench.

 

Dude, you are the only one posting, and it is in the wrong freaking section. Go over to the LR-3 section where people might care. The Discovery's this section cover stopped production in 2004.

 

LR3 sect = Disco III and LR3, post there please, or mike please move this,,... if you can.

 

Thank you for letting me know this--they might consider titling that forum LR3 / Disco III. I'll see if I can delete the irrelevant posts re: the LR3 / Disco III.

I would also like to include the Disco II in our results, so the thread itself is relevant. Simply a matter of getting enough participants. While not everyone cares about reliability stats, some people would love to have better reliability info on the Disco II. I conduct this research for those who want the results. Over 35,000 signed up so far.

Car reliability research

 

About 50 Disco IIs signed up so far. A start, but more will be needed to provide results for it like we do the Disco III/LR3.

 

Updated results recently posted for the LR3. The Disco II isn't in the survey yet, but getting closer to the minimum number of owners.

Vehicle reliability research

 

83 Discovery owners now signed up. A decent start, but more are needed to include the Disco II in the survey.

Car reliability research

 

What you're discussing here is called the "healthy user effect" in immunology: flu vaccine, for example, may appear more efficacious than it actually is because the *overall* mortality inclination of the group who actually take it is lower.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1