FAQ
What is QIR?
The Quality Index Rating(QIR) offers an overall score based on the frequency of powertrain issues, the mileage distribution of when those issues take place, and vehicle age at the time of trade-in. You can think of it as a weighted average where we look at a number of factors for a given vehicle model, and then get a single value indicating it's overall long-term reliability.
What is a good QIR score?
An average QIR score for a vehicle model is 50, with a range of possible scores from 0-100. Most vehicle models fall into the 30-70 score range, with those above 70 being quite reliable in general, while those below 30 being generally quite poor in terms of reliability.
What is a "powertrain issue"?
Powertrain issues are defects that exist with either the engine or transmission. These defects are severe enough to impact the operation of the vehicle.
Do you track other issues, like the electrical or A/C systems?
No. At the moment our primary focus is on the major mechanical components of the powertrain, as quality and reliability issues with these components have the greatest impact on a vehicle owners ability to keep their car.
Do you track other issues, like the electrical or A/C systems?
No. At the moment our primary focus is on the major mechanical components of the powertrain, as quality and reliability issues with these components have the greatest impact on a vehicle owners ability to keep their car.
Where does your data come from?
Our data is provided by a partnership with a national network of used car auctions, which allows us to get information on vehicles from all across the country with uniform reporting standards.
So the data is from used car auctions? What if you're just getting crummy vehicles that people dump off, won't that skew the data?
We add thousands of new vehicles to our database every week, and while it's certainly possible that someone could send a "lemon" to auction, the volume of vehicles being processed, and the standardized methods used to assess the vehicles, helps us protect against one or two bad owners throwing off our numbers.
Cool! Where can I find your data?
Our data is not (at least at this time) publicly available. Our partnership agreement with our data providers does not allow us to publicly redistribute the database, but we try to provide transparency wherever possible to indicate the sources for, and methods used, in our analysis.
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