Just engine management. The computer can monitor crankshaft and camshaft position and plan accordingly in a start/stop situation. Can’t do that when the car has been turned off and is turning back on.

 

Consumer Reports most reliable cars 2000 to 2023:

 

I've driven several cars with stop/start. I get the principal. When I'm driving to work in either my Tundra or GS, and am sitting at one of the several long lights, I just sit there and watch my trip mileage tick down lower and lower. It's obvious that it would save me fuel if I had it (and used it).

My father in-laws Durango has it and it's terrible. I turn it off when I drive it because I find it slow and intrusive. I can sort of defeat it by lessening my pressure on the brake pedal before just before the stoplight turns green, prompting the engine to come back on, but overall, it's terrible. Other cars are much quicker at restarting and I find them to be less annoying. I could get used to those.

My Highlander is a hybrid, and while the engine does often turn off at stop lights, I don't consider it to be an experience like the regular stop/start systems, as I can start moving under electric alone and not have to wait for the engine to restart. I don't have an issue with that at all.

 

Ugh yeah the WK2 Grand Cherokee and the Durango stuck out to me as having very slow stop/start systems. I used to get them as rentals all the time.

 

Toyota and Lexus reliability took a hit in the COVID years while BMW improved two models (3 and X5). Nevertheless, these are outliers and soon the law of averages will bring things back to previous status. BMW ownership without any type of extended warranty will likely continue to be more expensive than Lexus.

For example, my 2013 Lexus ES300h had a $58 repair in 11 years while my brother.s 2013 BMW 535 has a replacement engine, a new transfer case, turbos, several other repairs and leaks.

 

While I consider the euro brand to be fun and great cars, I have to give it to the Japanese cars for reliability.

Until I see more info, I think Lexus is the more reliable car in the long run for people who can't fix their own cars.

Especially over the 100k miles mark.

Yeah, for a new car who cares about reliability, it's under warranty anyway.

 

You can’t discount that BMW has gotten better in areas outside of the 3-series and X5 though. The B58 I6 turbo engine that replaced the one in your brother’s 535i, for example, has proven to be very reliable. Same for its B48 I4 sibling. Both of those engines are found across BMW’s lineup and have done wonders for reliability ratings.

 

Nice to know one single data point overwhelms decades of past (and I'm sure, future) studies, surveys, and personal anecdotes from literally thousands of Toyota/Lexus and BMW customers

 

The measure is not reliability alone, that is one part of it. Its an overall score that uses road test scores, owner satisfaction, and reliability as a part of it.

I can tell you after 22 years of owning Lexus vehicles and now having a Mercedes, it would be hard for me to go back to Lexus. Sure the reliability long term is a bigger question mark but overall the product is much better,

 

Two reasons, first is that initial start is aggressive to light off the cats quickly and because everything is cold and it takes a minute or two for pistons etc to thermally stabilize. Second is they intentionally engineer that in because people like it...

When it's warm the first list of reasons doesn't apply and the engine will already be fully smoothed out, the only thing that's restarting is oil pressure.

 

The thread title is a little misleading since the chart that's posted covers those other areas too. Just looking at Reliability only Lexus is doing fine vs. other brands.

 

Because there’s nothing good about the current offerings, maybe apart from the GX.

 

LC and RCF

 

Once again, the Consumer Reports ranking is not reliability. It's an amalgamative category called "Best Cars". It includes not just reliability, but owner satisfaction and CR's own subjective views on the cars.

My wife and I are on our second BMW. We had a 2021 330i, and now we have a 2023 X3. Both have been fabulous vehicles, and largely reliable. However, while my Lexus cars have had literally zero faults apart from the occasional noise (that ended up being a non-issue in each case), the BMWs have not been faultless. Our 330i's power kick-to-open trunk mechanism stopped working after about 3 months of ownership. (We got it replaced under warranty, and it never had any further problems.) Our X3's sunroof started making a terrible tapping noise about 4-5 months into ownership. (We also got that fixed under warranty.) Also, Android Auto has been pretty flaky on both cars. Sometimes we have to manually reconnect the phone for no apparent reason, which also sometimes doesn't work. So, in those cases, we have to reboot the car's infotainment system (not the same as turning the car off and back on again). The Lexus infotainment system has never had any issues connecting to my phone.

I am just one guy, though, and honestly, I'd buy another BMW. They are very nice cars to drive, which outweighs the slight issues from time to time.

 

Neat! It's not like this in all vehicles bc my BIL's Nautilus, hit the start button and it (2.0t) instantly buzzed on like it was a "start/stop" start.

It has crossed my mind that it's like that way on purpose, the Denali cold starting. At least they have engineers who know what people like. I also have to point out that everybody knows half of the engineers of this stupid stuff like start/stop are shaking their heads along with us. They don't honestly think people want cars that shut off at lights....