Consumer Reports: Most reliable cars

[POLO]

Most reliable cars for small car is Toyota Corolla,equal Pontiac Vibe,have the same motor,And,Of the 32 car models with the highest reliability ratings, 29 were from Japan-based manufacturers. Toyota, with 16, and Honda, with 7, had the most vehicles with top reliability ratings. http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/0...x.htm

[AKLGT]

Consumer Reports: Most reliable cars Sedans from VW, Mercedes, BMW fare poorly while Japanese models take the top spots.November 8, 2004: 6:01 PM EST NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - European sedans may have many wonderful attributes. Reliability, however, is not among them, according to the latest Consumer Reports reliability survey. Of the 11 sedans with the lowest predicted reliability, according to the survey, 10 were from European brands including Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and BMW. Most Volkswagen models were rated far below average for reliability. The all-wheel drive Volkswagen Passat received the lowest reliability rating of any vehicle in the survey. A spokesman for Volkswagen of America did not deny that the company's products have had problems. "We are obviously aware of some of these issues," he said. The company has been working to track and correct reliability problems, he said, adding that customers should see results in upcoming redesigned 2005 versions of several of its cars. Of the 32 car models with the highest reliability ratings, 29 were from Japan-based manufacturers. Toyota, with 16, and Honda, with 7, had the most vehicles with top reliability ratings. South Korean automaker Hyundai's Sonata earned a top spot in the ratings this year, a first for that manufacturer. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic gas/electric hybrid cars both were both listed among the most reliable vehicles. The only cars from an American manufacturer to earn top scores were the Buick Regal, which has been discontinued for 2005, and non-supercharged versions of the Pontiac Grand Prix. Among SUVs, Japanese brands monopolized the top spots. The Toyota Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi Endeavor were among the most reliable, according to the survey The Toyota Tundra was the only pick-up truck to earn a top rating in the survey. The new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks both scored above-average. The redesigned Ford F-150, which had been among that company's most reliable products, slipped in the ratings this year. The survey included responses from the owners of 810,000 vehicles. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2004 and covered 1997 to 2004 models. The ratings are based on the number of problems per 100 vehicles in the survey. The reliability ratings form part of the data used to determine which models are recommended by Consumer Reports. Other factors include government crash and rollover tests and performance in Consumer Reports' own auto tests. --*Disclaimer Small carsThese models earned ratings Most and Least reliable in Consumer Reports' 2004 reliability survey. Most reliable Toyota Corolla Scion xB Honda Civic Mazda3 Subaru Impreza Toyota Echo Mitsubishi Lancer (except Evo) Least reliable Volkswagen Golf (turbo)Volkswagen Jetta (turbo) Volkswagen New Beetle Source: Consumer Reports SedansThese models earned ratings Most and Least reliable in Consumer Reports' 2004 reliability survey. Most reliable Lexus IS300 Acura RL (previous version) Toyota Camry (4-cyl.) Toyota Avalon Lexus LS430 Lexus GS300/GS430 (previous versions) Buick Regal (discontinued) Pontiac Grand Prix Hyundai Sonata Infiniti G35 (AWD) Least reliable Mercedes-Benz S-Class Jaguar S-Type BMW 7 Series Jaguar X-Type Mercedes-Benz E-Class Mercedes-Benz C-Class (V6) Volvo S60 (AWD) Saab 9-3 Pontiac Grand Prix (supercharged) Volkswagen Passat (AWD) BMW 5 Series Source: Consumer Reports

[ToolGuy]

No surprise again with, VW and Mercedes!

[AKLGT]

ya no kidding! and to think how much you have to pay for mercedes, they should run forever!i've always known VW haven't been very reliable for some time... too bad because i like them (the Turbo'd ones and NOT the new beetle!)

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by trdvibe »ya no kidding! and to think how much you have to pay for mercedes, they should run forever!The old saying, "you get what you pay for" sometimes doesn't work out the way one would think.

[AKLGT]

well back in summer of 99 i bought a 92 s-10 blazer. pos! that same summer is when the new mercedes suv came out. i paid about $8500 for my pos, and my ex-mother in law paid like $40K for her pos mercedes. so i figured, as crappy as that junker was, atleast it was only $8500 and not $40K like she spent! ha ha ha!

[JohnC]

What is really funny is that the Pontiac Vibe is more reliable than the Toyota Matrix per the 2004 Annual Auto issue. I think it was just a stastical fluke, but GM will take the win anyway (they need it).

[AKLGT]

well from what i understand as well, the vibe also has a better safty rating than the trix. i'm wondering if that's because of the roof rack?? or different sheet metal? hmm...

[ColonelPanic]

I'm still trying to figure out why there would be a difference between the Matrix/Vibe... In an old thread, I posted a link showing the differences:http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=13107Matrix: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/2968.htmlVibe: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/2927.htmlStructually, I would think the two vehicles should perform the same... Looks like the gov has given both cars 5-star crash test ratings for the front passengers. But it looks like the opinions from the insurance companies differ, giving Vibe the advantage of being "safer." Pretty confusing!

[Geo]

Go Mazda 3 go!

[Raven]

Maybe the insurance companies rated the Vibe better because it is cheaper to repair.

[joatmon]

those toyota fanboys at CR still like the Vibehttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld...7.htmQuote »Used car best betsSource: Consumer ReportsConsumer Reports magazine identifies about 60 vehicle that have done well in editors' road tests and have had better-than-average reliability over several model years in consumer surveys. Only four of them are not Japanese models, and two of those (Chevrolet Prizm, Pontiac Vibe) are built at New United Manufacturing Inc., the Toyota-General Motors joint-venture plant in Fremont, and have Toyota powertrains.• Acura: Integra, MDX, RL, RSX (except '06), TL, TSX• Buick: Regal• Chevrolet: Prizm• Honda: Accord, Civic, Civic Hybrid, CR-V, Element, Odyssey, Pilot, Prelude, S2000• Infiniti: FX, G20, G35, I30, I35, QX4• Lexus: ES, GS, GX, IS, LS, RX, SC• Lincoln: Town Car• Mazda: Millenia, MX-5 Miata, Protege, 3• Nissan: Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder• Pontiac: Vibe• Scion: xB• Subaru: Forester, Impreza, WRX, Legacy, Outback• Toyota: 4Runner, Avalon, Camry, Camry Solara, Celica, Corolla, Echo, Highlander, Land Cruiser, Matrix, Prius, RAV4, Sequoia, Sienna, Tundra

[ColonelPanic]

Yep, CR's at it again... http://money.cnn.com/galleries....htmlIf it ain't a Honyosanzda, it ain't good enough for CR. Great stuff, especially what they said about the Mazda Miata:Quote »Reliability is fair, but that's good enough to earn a recommendation.Yeah, they'll say that about a Japanese car. But would they recommend a domestic (or, even an import, anything non-Japanese) that also had "fair reliability?" Hell no!IMHO, the Solstice should have won this one... It sure is outselling the Miata, I see plenty of them around here while I don't recall seeing one new Miata. Somebody obviously must be enjoying those!Blah, anyway, CR would do themselves a favor by not making the same dull cars winners year after year - there's plenty else out there that may actually be good that isn't a Toyota/Honda/etc. Plenty of good surprises to be found even from Detroit these days...

[jimincalif]

It would be nice if some other publication undertook the same sort of approach to compiling reliability statistics. Car and Driver, Road and Track, Edmunds.com, etc. don't even go there. I guess they really can't, as they do have to sell advertisements. But for most of us a car is a significant investment, and day-to-day reliability is important. Where else can someone find similar data?CR is assumed reputable, but their recent admissions regarding their child seat evaluations should (but probably won't) damage their reputation. They apparently tested the side impacts at 2x the stated speed, yet reporting of it implies it was some sort of mistake or simple oversight. http://www.cnn.com/2007/AUTOS/....html

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by jimincalif »It would be nice if some other publication undertook the same sort of approach to compiling reliability statistics. Yup. The principles in which they operate on sound great in theory - collecting data and presenting it to the customer so they can make a more informed decision. However, the bias they show toward certain manufacturers (which they don't seem to have the desire to hide) ends up clouding the overall picture. There are countless cars out there from so many manufacturers that come from all corners of the world that one could buy... I have a hard time believing that the only ones that are good enough to own are the ones come from Honyota. It really would be nice if somebody else stepped up to the plate and presented data in a more neutral form.That whole child seat media frenzy that CR created was just plain wrong. That was pretty low of them to mislead the public in such a manner - but they'll be able to get away with it.

[prathman]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Yeah, they'll say that about a Japanese car. But would they recommend a domestic (or, even an import, anything non-Japanese) that also had "fair reliability?" Hell no!IMHO, the Solstice should have won this one... It sure is outselling the Miata,Actually they listed quite a few domestic car models as "recommended" that had the same "average" reliability rating as the Miata. Those include the Ford 500, Ford Focus, Mercury Montego, Chevy HHR, Cadilllac CTS, as well as numerous domestics that are also recommended that have higher reliability ratings.But Consumers Union has long specified their criteria for a recommendation to include a reliability rating of at least average and the Solstice came out with a rating of 'much worse than average' thereby making it ineligible. Note that this reliability rating comes directly from the responses to the annual subscriber survey. So the main reason it's not recommended is just because the owners who returned the survey forms had a higher than average number of problems to report. Of course as a new model there's only a limited amount of such owner data and it's to be hoped that the reliability rating improves as more data is available and early model problems are dealt with by Pontiac.