Toyota Bounces Back In Latest Consumer Reports Ratings, Europeans Show More Progress

Fuel-efficient vehicles are a very reliable segment of the automotive market overall. And European cars, which have trailed the domestic models for about five years, are showing signs of improvement.

Those are the top findings of our 2008 Car Reliability Survey, based on our subscribers' experiences with 1.4 million vehicles. Respondents reported on any serious problems they had with their vehicles in 17 trouble spots during the previous 12 months, which allows us to provide predicted-reliability Ratings for new cars. We include only models for which we have 100 or more responses.

According to the survey, nine hybrid models for which we have sufficient data earned above-average predicted-reliability Ratings. Most of those hybrids are from Japanese automakers. We also found that conventional gas-sippers such as the Honda Fit, Scion xD, Smart ForTwo, and Toyota Yaris had few problems.

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g2ok - 10/23/2008 5:14:26 PM

-1 Boost

Looks like Toyota has been listening to customer complaints.

abcd - 10/23/2008 5:39:40 PM

+2 Boost

"Almost all Ford models are now average or better, with the exception of some that are truck-based. Excluding those, Ford's reliability is now on par with good Japanese automakers."

I think Mazda may have a big contribution to Ford good result . I read somewhere that Mazda is responsible for quality , reliability in Ford group .

0to60 - 10/23/2008 10:34:11 PM

+2 Boost

Thats Lexus. They have remained on top.

mkaresh - 10/24/2008 12:55:50 AM

-1 Boost

It's not a small sample. Sample size is one limitation CR doesn't have.

Instead--and this is the information they bury, if they publish it at all:

1. The data are already about five months old, and will be over a year old when many people use them to buy a car next summer.

2. The average problem rate isn't very high, probably around 18 problems per 100 cars for the 2008s (based on past years; they didn't have a number when asked this year). So the differences between the different "blobs" is three or four problems per 100 cars. In both cases, the numbers are probably much lower than many people think.

For a site that promptly updates its vehicle reliability information four times a year and posts the actual repair rates:

http://www.truedelta.com

After all, do you want to know how reliable a car was a year ago, when it was a year younger, or how reliable it has been recently?

0to60 - 10/24/2008 8:07:13 AM

+3 Boost

wouldnt that make you a mouth full of caddy juzz?

david999 - 10/24/2008 12:24:06 PM

+3 Boost

Again, Mercedes and Land Rover finish at, or near the bottom on many of their models.

chano129 - 10/26/2008 7:08:42 AM

+1 Boost

was top Japaneese car for 2006,2007 but infiniti is the top for 2008.Now somebody tell me what is the hell going on with JD power and Consumer report,the toyota is way above nisssan and leading honda, but cr rating have toyota behind.I wish to believe cr report.

neutral - 10/26/2008 11:30:25 PM

0 Boost

CR is a bunch of crap buddy... Seriously.. where does CR get their data from? Johnnie Q Public, the same people who voted in Bush.............Twice. The last place I want to go to get information about cars is CR. Things are all relative... the Camry could have some tiny issue that the Accord doesn't have.. and people would complain and complain and CR will report "poor quality". Absolute rubbish.