Thanks all! Great advice.
MMM in his post about cars did say to disregard anecdotal evidence of (un)reliable cars... :-) and go for wide statistical data. Only problem is, there's no such option of magazine I know of that does what lemon aid or consumer reports do for the US market. Plus, many models which are popular here are not on a typical car owner's radar. Makes such as Skoda, Opel, Fiat, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Hyundai, are not even on the list even while they do offer cars with statistically better fuel consumption... So I don't know how to match what is said in said magazines with the cars on sale here...