From Consumer Reports:
THE JAPANESE MYTH
Honda and Toyota are lauded for their reliability and have built a number of high-rated models, including 7 of our 10 Top Picks. But we found that not all Japanese cars excel.
“Honda and Toyota are really on a pedestal,” says James Rubenstein, an automotive analyst at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. But other Japanese makers, such as Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi, have struggled to build high-quality cars consistently.
Nissan’s lineup, on average, actually scores above Toyota’s in CR’s tests, 75 vs. 70. Nissan also produces several of the most reliable cars in our survey, including Infiniti sedans. But three Nissans--the Armada,Titan, and Infiniti QX56--were among models with the most reliability problems in our survey; all are made in the same plant in Canton, Miss. Ford vehicles, in comparison, have slightly better reliability in our survey than cars from Nissan.
Mazda vehicles test well, but reliability has been hit-or-miss. For example, it took several years for all versions of the Mazda6 to come up to average reliability. The average Mitsubishi scores only a 60 in CR’s testing and has average reliability. Mitsubishi’s Eclipse sports coupe scored too low in our road tests for us to recommend it. Though every manufacturer has recalls, even Toyota has taken some heat over its 10 recalls of 657,000 vehicles in the past year, although that is not a factor in our reliability Ratings.
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