And does it matter if the car has 100k miles or 15k miles? Porsche and Buick owners would be inclined to drive not so far, while Honda and Nissans would.

 

i think you're missing a key point; "dependability." people can have service done wherever they want - this study makes no mention and does not take into account any warranty information whatsoever. this is strictly based on problems that people experienced with their new cars. it's entirely independent of cost, warranty (or lack thereof), and even services performed. the charts clearly state that they're measuring "Problems per 100 Vehicles." it's a measure of how many people had (or reported) problems with a particular brand's vehicles - nothing else. if that doesn't go hand in hand with dependability, i don't know what does.

cost has absolutely no meaning in a dependability survey. a new hyundai could have exactly the same number of problems as a new rolls royce, but being cheaper to fix doesn't make the hyundai any more or less reliable.