wow.. you're on one today huh.. ok.. just because i love being the devils advocate..
i would call a sampling of 160 owners significant if, say, a total of 300 were produced.. or 1600.. or even 3200.. that's just 5%... but, being as the poll was posted here, your statistics reflect raptorforum.com users, not an overall owner base... and we both know that more than 3200 of them were produced. btw, i was one of the 56.69% vote, i just searched the poll to make sure. so go ahead and adjust your numbers. my tranny has since failed.
now, you do recall the point where i said i don't know statistics and whatnot.. and the 60% i "spouted off" with was a random number based on absolutely no research. i pulled a number out of the air based on your 40%. of course, i was talking total owners, but even if you're number somehow held true across the owner base, that's 4 out of every 10 that has failed or been proactively been replaced.. using your numbers. so out of your sampling of 160 raptor owners, 54.4 of them actually experienced a failure. (55.4 if you count me, since i was previously a non-failure) actually had it happen to them. another 14.4 replaced the component before it had a chance to fail. and you call this a low likelyhood for failure? really??
now, you say your point was just not to worry about it. my point was to not obsess over it, but prepare for the eventuality. yea, i got lucky finding my complete 02 tranny at the price i did. forks, drums, everything in the transmission. and just about anybody can find one for that price if they have the money set aside to buy it when they find it, and the time to pass when a bidding war breaks out. more importantly, the time to stay away from the buy it now button. i believe in preperation. i carry a backpack in my car with a change of clothes and other items i may find myself wishing i had. i stock up on food and i keep a spare bolt and firing pin in the grip of my ar-15. and the chances of me ever needing any of that stuff is lower than 34.39% i'll tell you that..
ETA ah. you edited the way you phrased some things... btw, i never said i didn't read it... i voted in it... i said i wasn't using any survey statistics..