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This article is intended to propose the utilization of performance measures and models as an alternative to usual reliability analysis. The usage of such models is an important technique, specially on applications in which the time available to test a new product is rather reduced and the traditional life tests provide little or no failure at all. Performance data modeling allows that the failure, and the distribution of failure time, be anticipated even when no failure is evidenced in the testing unit. The utilization of these models is portrayed by modeling an automotive component (universal joint), and by studying the correlation between a universal joint performance in lab tests and in field tests.