Used-car reliability
There has never been a better time to buy
This article appeared in 
Older cars have become far more reliable than they were even five years ago, our latest survey shows. That means that buying used—or keeping your car longer—isn't the gamble you might have thought, especially if you steer clear of trouble-prone models.
In our Annual Auto Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, we found that five-year-old vehicles had about one-third fewer problems than the five-year-old vehicles we looked at in 2005.
The best values for buyers in the used-car market are two- or three-year-old models, which are past the steep part of the depreciation curve, have the latest safety features, and should provide many more years of faithful service. Some are still covered by the original warranty. We found that three-quarters of the owners of three-year-old vehicles reported no problems during the preceding 12 months.
Five-year-old cars can be good bargains as well. Problem rates, on average, are only slightly higher than with three- or four-year-olds. Two-thirds of the five-year-old vehicles in our survey were problem free.
Furthermore, the most serious problems, such as engine or transmission replacement or faults in the cooling system, are quite rare. Only about 1 percent of the five-year-olds had a major engine or transmission problem; 1.5 percent had a cooling-system problem.
However, by age nine or 10, just half of the vehicles had gone a year without a significant problem.
