mercdriver

2005 R Class?

mkaresh

Um, 2006. Either my brain or my fingers failed me at the time.

mkaresh

We should have an initial result for the 2006 in May. Additional participants remain needed to fully cover all model years.

Car reliability research

mkaresh

Just enhanced the related repair history survey so that it can (optionally) be used as a personal car maintenance record.

As always, more participants would be helpful. Updated Car Reliability Survey results in May, with a preview for participants in mid-April.

Car reliability research

mkaresh

We ended up three responses short of the minimum for a result this month.

We'll have another update in August. With just a few more participants we'll have a result for the R-Class then.

mkaresh

As noted earlier, need only a few more participants for a result for the 2006 in August.

To help get your year included:

Car Reliability Survey

mkaresh

It certainly took longer than I had hoped, but we will have a result for the 2006 R-Class next month. The sample size will be small, so additional participants remain needed for this and other years.

To help get your year fully included:

Car reliability research

mkaresh

We have an initial result for the R-Class based on owner experiences through June 30, 2010.

With a reported repair frequency of 111 repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2006 is worse than average.

This is based on a very small sample size.

We'll have further updated in November and February. With more participants, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For more detailed results, and to sign up to help:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability comparisons

fstshrk

While I think you have the right idea. Your website design and user interface seems to be stuck in 1999. I find it difficult to use and understand. By soliciting user opinions without a validated statistical sampling methodology, you are likely to get feedback from users that have negative opinions of the products (which Consumer Reports also suffers from).

People that have something negative to say tend to hit the internet forums more often and most online product surveys are biased towards the negative results. To get a truely representative result set, I would recommend that you perform a random sampling of the customer base using databases from MBUSA or state DMVs.

Just a thought.

mkaresh

I'm well aware of this potential problem, which is why the survey only collects data going forward, not retropectively like other surveys. This unique design largely compensates for not having a random sample.

The proof is in the results--there are dozens of models in the survey for which hardly any repairs have been reported. If there was a strong negative bias, this wouldn't happen.

fstshrk

Let's agree to disagree on this. I have seen your posts on pretty much every car forum there is. The potential number of users that are motivated to go to your website and fill out the information is miniscule compared to a well-designed statistically sampled survey across different demographics, regions etc.

I hope this works out for you and that you can take the time to redesign the web site to make it more user-friendly and actually bring it inline with your competitors.

Best of luck with the endeavor.

mkaresh

You might be making some assumptions that would not hold up if you had the actual numbers. Do you know the following...

How many people are in the largest survey of car reliability with a random sample?

What is that survey's response rate?

How large is the impact of non-response bias?

A random sample would cost far more than I could afford, without substantially improving the quality of the results.

Larger sample sizes are always good to have, which is why I do what I can to get more people involved.

Usability is something I can afford to do something about, and very much would like to do something about. The problem here is that all I get are general complaints. When I request feedback detailed enough to act upon, I don't get it.

If your boss sent you a memo that simply said, "You're not doing a good enough job," and nothing else, what could you do with that information?

I am very open to any suggestions you have here. If you are aware of any sites that present the amount of information mine does in a much more usable way, I would truly appreciate it if you could point me toward them.

fstshrk

Here is a freebie:

I click on reliability and the first thing I see is this:
But, I was expecting to see "reliability" ratings.

Your website design seems to be very linear (as in looooong pages) that include scrolling.
The site does not make very good use the screen real estate.

Also, requiring the users to login to get information is very old school,
make the information available to them and create goodwill, then you will get infinitely more responses.

As I said, I appreciate what you are trying to do, and I wish you best of luck.
Depending on your resources, you may want to invest in a couple of week's time in a web UI expert's time.

If I were doing a web site like yours. I would have a very simple first page with a free query search box,
something like:

Find the Reliability Ratings for: <search box>

where the user can enter 2002 Mercedes C240 or something like Porsche.

Which will either list the result if there is a good match, or list options.

Then, I would go to a simple rating system like ebay seller feedback as the first layer
of reliability. Then ask if the user wants to dive deeper. Most people will probably choose
to stay at the first level.

Anyhow, these are just some thoughts. If you are not doing so already, I would also
create a sitemap.xml file that will submit the reliability summary page for each car in the
database to google.

mkaresh

Great stuff, thanks.

I've tried a few times in the past to find a designer and/or UI expert to work with. About to have another go at it--have some people I'll be talking to after the weekend.

Definitely need to remove some steps, break up the pages into smaller chunks, and layer the information more. I fully agree with all of these suggestions, and I hope to be implementing them sooner rather than later. The actual implementation gets complicated, but it's definitely doable.

The "give it all away and count on goodwill" approach was tried in the beginning, and failed miserably. As soon as I added the login (which isn't required to view most of the site's information) the rate at which people signed up to participate jumped by more than 10x.

Not the way I'd like the world to be, but very clearly the way it is.

mkaresh

We'll have an updated partial result for the 2006 next month. Working toward full results for all years.

Help make this happen:

Car reliability research

mkaresh

Starting this month we have a new question to measure, as objectively as possible, the severity of a problem. Many people have been asking for reliability stats that weight problems by how severe they are, and once we have enough responses with the revised survey we'll start providing this.

Also this month: updated reliability stats.

mkaresh

We have an updated result for the R-Class based on owner experiences through September 30, 2010.

With a reported repair frequency of 98 repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2006 is about average, but close to "worse than average."

This is based on a small sample size.

We'll have further updated in February and May. With more participants, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For more detailed results, and to sign up to help:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

pacoman

Signed up today with my 2008 R350.

mkaresh

We have an updated result for the R-Class based on owner experiences through December 31, 2010.

With a reported repair frequency of 113 repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2006 is "worse than average."

This is based on a small sample size.

We'll have further updated in May and August. With more participants, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For more detailed results, and to sign up to help:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

We have an updated result for the R-Class based on owner experiences through March 31, 2011.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2007: 169, worse than average

2006: 101, about average

Very small sample size for both, which likely explains the difference between them.

We'll have further updated in August and November. With more participants, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For more detailed results, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

We have updated car reliability stats for the Mercedes-Benz R-Class based on owner experiences through June 30, 2011.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2007: 148, worse than average

2006: 95, about average

Very small sample size for both, which likely explains the difference between them. The number of cars still under warranty might also play a role.

We'll have further updated in November and February. With more participants, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For more detailed results, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

We have updated our reliability stats for the R-Class based on owner experiences through December 31, 2011.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2007: 164, worse than average

2006: 80, about average

Very small sample size for both, which likely explains the difference between them. The number of cars still under warranty and a higher repair frequency for the diesel might also play a role.

We'll have further updated in May and August. With more participants, we could provide more precise results, split these results by engine, and cover more model years.

For more detailed our reliability stats, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

Both numbers came down just a little with the first quarter update, to 146 and 67, respectively. We very much need more participants for both model years.

One of our members recently bought a 2008, and asked how close it was to being included in the survey. With theirs we're just three short--so if a few more owners signed up we can add it.

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

We have updated our reliability stats for the R-Class based on owner experiences through September 30, 2012.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2007: 85, worse than average

2006: 113, worse than average

Small sample size for both.

We'll have further updates in February and May. With more owners involved, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For the details and competitor scores, and to sign up to help:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons

mkaresh

We have updated our reliability stats for the R-Class based on owner experiences through December 31, 2012.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2007: 53, moderate

2006: 85, high

Small sample size for both.

We'll have further updates later this month and in August. With more owners involved, we could provide more precise results and cover more model years.

For the details and competitor scores, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Mercedes-Benz R-Class reliability ratings and comparisons