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Toyota crashes in reliability rankings
Automaker slips to fifth from first place, and some versions of Camry, Tundra and Lexus GS no longer recommended.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 16 2007: 12:01 PM EDT
NEW YORK, CNNMoney.com -- The Toyota brand has lost its top position for iron-clad reliability, according to an influential Consumer Reports survey released Tuesday.
The survey dropped Toyota from first to fifth place - behind Honda, Acura, Scion and Subaru - in average vehicle reliability. The rankings are based on average predicted reliability for all models sold under a given brand.
Brands made by Toyota Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. still dominate the rankings: Scion is Toyota's low-priced car brand and Acura is Honda's luxury car brand.
Consumer Reports said it no longer recommends V6 versions of Toyota's Camry or V8 versions of its Tundra pick-up because of poor reliability.
In the past, because Toyota (Charts) products have so consistently proved reliable, the magazine would assume at least average reliability for Toyota's brand new cars, without waiting for survey data from owners.
But from now on, the magazine will wait for a full year of reliability survey data to come in before it recommends a Toyota product - as it does with most other manufacturers.
Manufacturers were not immediately available for comment.
Toyota recently passed Ford in sales and is now the second best-selling car company in the United States behind General Motors.
Domestic manufacturers General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500), Ford (Charts, Fortune 500) and Chrysler continued to improve in the Consumer Reports reliability rankings. But only Buick, GM's near-luxury brand ranked number 10, made into the top ten.
Among individual models, GM's closely related GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook SUVs earned a Consumer Reports recommendation based on their first full year of data. The Dodge Charger also earned a recommendation after its reliability showed substantial improvement from previous years.
Ford, in particular, is improving in quality, according to Consumer Reports. In all, 93 percent of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles showed average or better reliability in the most recent reliability survey.
Among overall brands, Ford's Mercury brand ranked 11th, the Ford brand ranked 13th and the Lincoln luxury brand ranked 14th. Other than Buick, they were the highest-ranking domestic brands.
Ford's quality has tended to be more consistent, with steady improvement year over year, than that of other domestic manufacturers, said David Champion, head of auto testing for Consumer Reports.
"GM and Chrysler have been more hit-and-miss," said Champion.
Of the 39 cars rated "Most Reliable" in Consumer Reports new list, four are by domestic manufacturers. They are the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, two-wheel-drives Ford F-150 V6 and GM's Pontiac Vibe. The Vibe is built in cooperation with Toyota and shares its engineering with the Toyota Matrix.
But 20 of the 44 "least reliable" models named by Consumer Reports were also from domestic manufacturers.
The least reliable car of all, according to Consumer Reports survey, is General Motors' Pontiac Solstice sports car. Its reliability was calculated to be 234 percent worse than average. It was followed closely by GM's Cadillac Escalade EXT, which is calculated to be 220 percent less reliable than the average vehicle.
European manufacturers showed some of the biggest improvements in overall brand rankings. Porsche rose 20 places since last year's survey to finish ninth, for example. Meanwhile, Mini rose 16 places and Jaguar rose 17.
Consumer Reports' reliability rankings differ significantly from those released recently by J.D. Power and Associates. In the J.D. Power most recent "Vehicle Dependability Survey," five of the top ten brands were domestic and Buick tied Lexus for first place.
One major reason for that difference: J.D. Power only surveys owners of three-year-old vehicles. But Consumer Reports surveys its subscribers about vehicles from all three of the most recent model years, unless the vehicle has changed significantly. If the vehicle has changed in that time, only vehicles built since the change are included.
Consumer Reports' rankings are based on survey responses from subscribers to the magazine and its Website. Responses included information on almost 1.3 million vehicles.
Over the past few years, both Consumer Reports and J.D. Power surveys have showed similar trends, however, with domestic car brands improving in quality with European brands generally lagging behind.
Since Toyota decided to produce its vehicle in US, its reliability begins to drop. I would not recommend to purchase any "IMPORT" car (Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Lexus, Acura...) with final assembly point in USA/CANADA.
If you want to buy an "IMPORT" car, then look for the final assembly point (printed on the MSRP sticker) from its original country.
Since Toyota decided to produce its vehicle in US, its reliability begins to drop. I would not recommend to purchase any "IMPORT" car (Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Lexus, Acura...) with final assembly point in USA/CANADA.
If you want to buy an "IMPORT" car, then look for the final assembly point (printed on the MSRP sticker) from its original country.
Disagree...Toyota and Honda have been manufacturing vehicles in the US for damn close to 20 yrs now (+) (-)...they built their reputation with US built automobiles!
I don't believe anything Consumers Reports says, since the Child Safety seat fiasco!
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96 Camry Coupe LE V6
98 Honda CRV
08 GMC Crew
11 Kia Sportage EX AWD
i smell something fishy
are these models not the ones made in the USA?
Methinks something is amiss
__________________
Will make proper siggy later.
(RIP) 1992 Black Toyota Paseo (AKA little blacky) (RIP)
2001 Silver Toyota Celica ( AKA - Lady Tiamat- ) (rip)
2009 Silver Toyota Corolla ( AKA - Nonameyet)
i agree with joe....consumer reports is full of shit
i mean only a very small percentage of camry/tundra models had issues. and theyre capitalizing on that
all those magazines and surveys are heavily honda biased anyway
Yep, they've slipped. Nobody has disputed that, including Toyota. Toyota has already been taking steps to remedy the situation as posted in the recent past.
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