Advices About Autos Consumer Reports Finds Fuel-Efficient Cars Also Reliable
Posted by admin on Friday Nov 7, 2008 Under Advices About Autos
Advices About Autos
Consumer Reports has released its annual automotive reliability rankings, and this year CR presents them with a twist that fits the slowing economy. “Fuel-efficient vehicles are a very reliable segment of the automotive market overall,” CR explains, with nine hybrid models receiving above-average reliability scores, and “gas-sippers such as the Honda Fit, Scion xD, Smart ForTwo, and Toyota Yaris” also doing quite well.
The most reliable nameplate in the automotive world this year was Toyota’s Scion brand - the first time Scion has claimed the honor. Business Week explains, “In this year’s study, Honda Motor Co.’s Acura and Honda lines ranked right behind Scion, followed by the Toyota nameplate and Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus. Asian names occupied all of the magazine’s top 10 slots, with a domestic automaker not appearing on the list until No. 11 with Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln brand.”
Among American automakers, the magazine found, Ford made the most dependable cars in 2008. Ford’s scores equaled those of Honda and Toyota in many cases. Kicking Tires notes, “GM’s reliability remains a mixed bag. While the Chevrolet Malibu is now recommended, vehicles like the Buick Enclave, Cadillac CTS and GMC Acadia received below-average reliability ratings. More than two-thirds of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles were labeled unreliable, with the Chrysler Sebring convertible rated as the most unreliable new car in the survey. “
Autoblog adds, “European brands are reportedly improving their reliability” overall in the survey, but “Many models remain below average and Land Rover has again came up dead last with all four of its SUVs scoring far below average.”
CR’s methodology is the source of some controversy in the industry. The magazine itself explains that the results are “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.” Some argue that Consumer Reports subscribers are a self-limiting set of consumers - that subscribers are more likely to buy brands the magazine calls reliable and avoid brands it doesn’t, constricting the information the magazine has available to compile its next set of ratings.
But Autoblog comments, “Regardless of where you stand on the validity of Consumer Reports’ testing and survey methods, there’s millions of people out there who consider the magazine their buying bible. Thus, it’s news when the non-profit releases findings from a new subscriber-based survey.”
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