To get sportiness, give up reliability?

Magna said:

This isn't a scientific assessment, but it seems that with more performance in handling and speed, the car is not as reliable. For example, Toyota/Lexus cars are very reliable, but not the most sporty cars out there. And out of all Lexus cars, I believe that the IS300 is one of Lexus' most unreliable. At one time Ferrari were very unreliable, breaking down often. So to get the handling and performance of our BMW's do you think we have to put up with some unreliability? Is it reasonable to get a car that's great in performance and reliability (best of both worlds)? Granted that BMW's are above average according Consumer Reports and JD Powers in reliability, so we do come close to having it all.

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Well, we KNOW you can have neither, like VW Jettas or older Hyundais.

And we KNOW you CAN have both, since BMWs are considered very good in reliability and good performance.

You can not, however, expect HIGH performance and reliability. High performance has the inherent problem of pushing old technologies to the brink of breakdown.

Lastly, it is ALL inversely proportional to how much money you're willing to spend. Think of money as your resource, and it needs to be divided equally among RELIABILITY and PERFORMANCE. The reason why car makers like Toyota seems to make very reliable cars, is because they dedicate more of their resources into making the car reliable rather than sporty.

I think the issue is quality control. Japanese manufacturers seem to be better at this.

You mentioned the IS300 as an example. By the same token, I haven't heard anything wrong with the Honda S2000 or the Acura NSX. So, I don't think performance is a trade off for quality.

The IS300 was not originally designed as part of the Lexus line. It really should have belonged in the Toyota line.

I think . . .

it has to do with how the cars are driven. I would imagine sportier cars on average are driven harder than the granny going to church LS430.

On the S2000, my co-worker had one and the clutch burned up after a few thousand miles. Honda replaced it under warranty, but again, it's how they're driven.

i think your post is a valid one, but your missing a key point... most people who buy a luxury car, are older, or more conservative, or more settled. Reason why this is so, is because if you got 80gs to spend or more, you could get a top lux or a top sports.

I'd say 80% + of the people who buy a performace car, uses that performance which means the cars are ridden ALOT harder. I'd say that at least 40% or more of sports car owners actually abuse thier cars with redlines, and just abusive driving.

I have no scientific information backing me up, but IMHO i think that the only reason performance cars show lower reliability is because of driver influence and not vehicle quality.

however there are exceptions i know, my uncles brand new corvette had the REAR AXLE FALL OFF over railroad tracks....