Of course it matters - if I post a new thread on the forum, I don't want it to be pushed down the list by older threads appearing suddenly at the top because it will reduce the chances of it being answered.

Conversely, if I do a search in an attempt to answer questions or give help to others with a particular car, then I only want to see the new threads at the top.

In answer to your second point - you're right - no-one does seem to care. Forum search results always used to appear in date order, so something has clearly changed recently.

I reported it as a problem but nothing has been done about it and I haven't even received a reply.

It's now almost a month after I first reported this bug and nothing has been done about it ?

It might be worth pointing out that it seems to happen when you narrow down your search to a particular car in the 'Technical matters' section.

If you search the 'Technical matters' section for Ford Focus and set 'within the last' as 'all dates', then the post at the top is from 2004 !

This never used to happen when doing this kind of search, so it must be a fairly recent bug.

If you search withing this 'general discussion' section, then the results do appear in date order.