Definition of reliability

[zeroXten]

So, Volvos have a reputation of being reliable and going on forever etc.

However, spending quite a bit of time on this forum shows the other side of things, all the possible annoying and expensive problems that Volvos can develop. Having been using this forum for a number of weeks now, my perception has been slightly warped because I've seen many examples of how things can go wrong.

Of course, this is heavily subject to a bias. This is exactly a forum where people can discuss problems with their cars, and I'm sure there are many Volvo owners out there with perfectly running cars that don't have the need to discuss how well they run on a forum.

But, my question is this. What is a reliable car? Is it one that can develop problems that need fixing, but do not otherwise "just break down"? Car are mechanical and so are subject to failures, so does owning a Volvo mean that I am statistically less likely to need to call out the AA, even if I do need to replace parts of the engine every now and again? Or, does it mean that, on the whole, Volvos generally need less parts replaced, work done on them to maintain them etc?