It looks at real-life repair data for one full calendar year on 10 model years worth of vehicles, weighing the frequency of repairs and the cost of those repairs equally.

FORBES: How To Predict What Will Go Wrong With Your Car Down The Road

Picking a model that subsequently spends an inordinate of time in the repair shop can quickly siphon away any savings realized from buying a used car in the first place.

FORBES: The Most-Reliable Used Cars

With used-car values already out of whack, shoppers need to be extra cautious to avoid compounding an already unfavorable financial situation by selecting a more problematic model that will require costly out-of-warranty repair work.

MSN: Used-car clunkers to avoid