Reliability is the number one value that most consumers want in a vehicle.
Disagree. I certainly care. I'm not sure it's #1 for me, but it's important to me and usually a filter for me to screen out unreliable models. I wouldn't buy the absolute most reliable vehicle (of all vehicles or in its class) if it didn't meet my other criteria.
Some consumers, certainly. Probably even most. If it was the number one characteristic for everyone, though, there would have been far fewer Jaguars sold during their temperamental years.
Agree, re: some. Most? Not sure about that. Agree re: Jaguar.
Take at auto sales figures at
Auto Sales - Markets Data Center - WSJ.com and
2012 - Dont Call It A Comeback Edition . Then look thru an April auto issue of Consumer Reports or look at
2012 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study | J.D. Power Autos (even though I don't trust JDPA much). In CR, one will see a ton of unreliable vehicles from GM and Ford. You'll see almost no Toyotas or Hondas w/below average reliability yet GM and Ford outsell Toyota and Honda.
I know of people who knowingly buy cars from automakers w/sketchy reliability (e.g. GM and VW) and ignore or don't even look at reliability ratings. When they have trouble and I tell some of them (like about VW), they'll be surprised.
Others choose to ignore CR and bash CR, bash Toyota and Honda and stick their head in their stand. Hang out on Cruzetalk.com, for instance to see what I'm talking about. There are VW fanboys that will also defend VW despite and make excuses (e.g. maintenance; sorry, that's not a valid excuse for body hardware that falls apart, peeling dashes, bad coils, electrical probs,etc.) for their usually poor showing.
Take a look at the lists at
December 2012 Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - GOOD CAR BAD CAR and
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - December 2011 - GOOD CAR BAD CAR.
In the December 2011 issue of Consumer Reports, the Chevy Cruze was the least reliable small car, by far, w/a horrible reliability rating (see
Consumer Reports Cruze reliability (from Dec '11 issue)) yet it was the #16 best selling car in the US in 2011 and #11 for 2012. People who bought the Cruze before that issue of CR came out bought it w/an unknown reliability rating. But, GM has been known for ages for having very spotty reliability, yet people bought them anyway. For 2012, from some semi-recent reports (came out a few months ago) it improved to average (actually 17% below average). OTOH, the Ford Focus has a terrible reliability rating as well, yet it was the #10 best selling vehicle in 2012.
At the risk of offending many here, I'd assert that buyers of Teslas don't value reliability as #1 as there are no CR nor JDPA reliability ratings on any Teslas. If they did, they'd wait for such results to come out first (which may never happen due to the # of respondents to CR required) and they'd have be good or excellent.
Don't the lights auto adjust anyway? I thought that was mandatory on Xenon lights?
It is not mandatory in the US AFAIK. I've heard that urban legend repeated several times on other car forums before. I've owned 3 cars w/factory Xenon lights. Two of them had no auto-adjustment mechanism at all: 02 Nissan Maxima and 04 350Z.