What is a "predicted reliability rating"?

What is a "predicted reliability rating"?

James Bell (Publisher, Auto Reviewer) gives expert video advice on: How can I find the predicted reliability rating for the vehicle I want? and more...

Reliability ratings have become much more important in the car buying process. As general quality has improved among all manufacturers, reliability is the next Holy Grail that all manufacturers are trying to achieve. Reliability ratings are generated in many different ways, some of them being surveying of people, or actually speaking to the people who are driving that vehicle, and seeing what their reliability record has been. Other groups will take hard data, and using very specific algorithms, identify how likely the vehicle is going to prove to be highly reliable. Reliability data from a surveying entity is sometimes a difficult thing. You don't know where the person's head is when they were filling out the survey; they could be angry at the vehicle for other reasons and therefore they give the reliability rating a bad score.