All car ads seem to like to mention that J.D. Power survey--but when was the last time you saw a copy of it lying around somewhere?  And even if you could get your hands on it, what would you really find out?  Last time I checked out such an advertising claim in any detail, the survey turned out to measure buyer satisfaction during the first 90 days.

Just by way of comparison, in my area you're lucky if you get your permanent license plates from the Department of Motor Vehicles in that length of time.  Am I the only one who has trouble taking that sort of thing as serious long-term product reliability research?

Let's compare it to something in real life.  Say your neighbor has bought a new car within the past couple of months.  Would it even occur to you to ask how it's holding up?  What would you expect him to say?  "Oh, the transmission fell out last week and the tires are bald and it's due for a major engine overhaul in 30 days, but aside from that everything's fine?"

If you wouldn't ask such a patently dumb question of your own new car-owning neighbor, why would you care how somebody else's neighbors respond when the same sorts of questions are asked of them?

Where else can you find out what's a good car and what's not?  Well, I suppose you could always turn to Consumer Reports for information.

Then again, maybe you could. 

Me, I can't even approach the idea without getting this mental picture of a gaggle of lab-coated dweebs standing around with clipboards, gravely measuring a Lamborghini Diablo for trunk space.  I just can't shake the image of them getting petulant over any car that differs from a 1967 Dodge Dart sedan.  So if I'm going to read something, I want it to be in a publication that knows real cars. That's where Car & Driver and the others of its ilk come in.