a lot of good points have been made, and i can tell you no car manufacturer wants to make an unreliable car, its just the way things boil down when you have a car with more power.

look at it this way, most peeps here buy used, so lets say your next project civic comes from grandpa down the street who never goes above 60mph and puts less than 5k miles a year on his car, you have yourself a near-mint well kept little car that has lots of potential

now lets say your next project car is an AWD turbo talon, owned by the mid-20's guy from downtown who wants to upgrade. now you have a car with 15,000 miles a year, only minimally kept up with, and dogged out most of the time. its going to have reliability issues. even if the DSM was 10x more reliable when driven the same way, the fact is that most of them are treated as cheap sports cars, and so they break like cheap sports cars.

and That is why i like hondas, it is easier to get used parts from cars that havnt been dogged, beaten on, or "built" by ametuer idiots.

but Mucho respect for the DSM builders, who are willing to take the challenge of keeping up with a car that is harder to maintain most of the time.