Consumer Reports has released the results of this year's reliability survey, and in general Mercedes models did poorly. (I won't go into the details, as they restrict these to paying members.)

Story based on their press release:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...y-survey_x.htm

Let's assume Mercedes are less reliable than most other cars. How much less reliable are they? Are we talking one extra repair in the first three or four years? Five extra repairs? Ten?

You cannot tell from the results CR releases.

In this and other ways (such as a highly subjective survey) CR's methods for collecting data and reporting results are deeply flawed. Since I saw no signs that they are going to change how they do things, I decided to develop my own reliability research.

In a nutshell, my research uses better methods, will yield more useful results, and will be free to those who participate.

To read more about my different approach, and sign up to help out:

http://www.truedelta.com/reliability.php

Comments and questions welcome, on CR's approach or my own.