[blackwasp]

Japanese car makers Lexus, Toyota and Mazda topped the Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings in the USA. The brands were followed by Subaru, Kia, Infinity, Audi, BMW, Mini and Hyundai making up the top 10.

The survey comprised of data from cars from 2000 to 2018 model years as well as 5,00,000 responses from Consumer Reports' members. More bias was given to mechanical issues in a vehicle than features like voice recognition. The report highlights mechanical problems which could leave drivers stranded and are expensive to repair.

In terms of the least reliability, Volvo came in last followed by Cadillac, Tesla, Ram and GMC. Tesla fell 6 places from last year due to suspension issues in the Model S and issues with falcon doors in the Model X. Buick fell 11 places to take up the 19th place, while 18th place was taken up by Ford, which was the highest ranked American brand this year.

Toyota and Lexus retained the top 2 positions for the 6th consecutive year. Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Jaguar Land Rover, Maserati, Mitsubishi and Smart were not ranked due to a lack of sufficient data.

Full ranking:
1. Lexus
2. Toyota
3. Mazda
4. Subaru
5. Kia
6. Infinity
7. Audi
8. BMW
9. Mini
10. Hyundai
11. Porsche
12. Genesis
13. Acura
14. Nissan
15. Honda
16. Volkswagen
17. Mercedes-Benz
18. Ford
19. Buick
20. Lincoln
21. Dodge
22. Jeep
23. Chevrolet
24. Chrysler
25. GMC
26. Ram
27. Tesla
28. Cadillac
29. Volvo



Source: Consumer Reports

Link to the Team-BHP News

[Sheel]

I am surprised to see Volvo at the last in this esteemed [and very important criteria for me] list. I always thought/saw examples where Audi used to flounder wrt other marques, at least here.

I do not have any experience of how things function in the US, but as things stand, the Japs and Toyota specifically are global leaders.

[i74js]

TOYOTA - Juggernaut; I think everyone will agree to this for the Japanese car maker. No wonder it topped the charts for past six years in a row.

It pays to be reliable !! The cash register keeps on ringing without break !

You do the same sampling in India and Toyota will again top it !

[V.Narayan]

Lexus & Toyota on top is understandable and predictable. But Volvo at the bottom is hard to get my head around. Unless American customers get a different variant which for some unique reason (e.g. bad gearbox, or big time recall) spoiled the name. Or, on a lighter note, maybe its because Trumpy does not like anything Chinese any more!

[Turbanator]

Even Porsche going down to 11, they used to be right at the top with Lexus if I am not mistaken.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

So while we are discussing the top, here's the bottom list - Consumer Reports ranking of the least reliable cars of 2018.

https://youtu.be/Aud-gnTJI1c

1. Honda Odyssey - Least Reliable minivan.
2. Chevrolet Traverse - Least Reliable Large SUV.
3. Tesla Model X - Least Reliable Luxury SUV.
4. Honda Clarity - Least Reliable Hybrid.
5. Chevrolet Malibu - Least Reliable Sedan.
6. Volvo S90 - Least reliable Luxury sedan.
7. RAM 3500 - Least reliable pickup.

Tesla was somewhat expected. Volvo seems have taken a big hit due to the S90, and two Hondas!

[naveenroy]

Funny to see these at the bottom
18. Ford
19. Buick
20. Lincoln
21. Dodge
22. Jeep
23. Chevrolet
24. Chrysler
25. GMC
26. Ram
27. Tesla
28. Cadillac

And in spite of that, more Americans want to buy "American" cars. Good luck to them.

[hema4saran]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Japanese car makers Lexus, Toyota and Mazda topped the Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings in the USA. The brands were followed by Subaru, Kia, Infinity, Audi, BMW, Mini and Hyundai making up the top 10.

To be honest, this report somewhat looks biased. I accept that Toyota and Lexus are bench mark when it comes to reliability. Honda behind Nissan? I personally know people having lot of trouble with their Nissan cars of Mid 2000's. The Pathfinder and Murano are notorious for their gearbox issues. Even a google search will tell you. On the other hand lot of old gen Pilots, CRVs, Accords are still going strong even after 150k miles except some minor issues. I am telling this as a Nissan owner.

Also Volvo at last? The older gen Volvos are good compared to their German rivals. They are mechanically superior and the build quality we all know about Volvos.

[HKap]

It would be interesting to see the scores. I think the top 6 will be bunched very close to each other. Not sure why Acura and Honda are ranked so low. I know the paint quality on the Honda's of the early 2000s was horrible. Is that a factor? I haven't seen too many reliability issues in Hondas.

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by hema4saran

To be honest, this report somewhat looks biased. I accept that Toyota and Lexus are bench mark when it comes to reliability. Honda behind Nissan? I personally know people having lot of trouble with their Nissan cars of Mid 2000's.

Originally Posted by HKap

It would be interesting to see the scores. I think the top 6 will be bunched very close to each other. Not sure why Acura and Honda are ranked so low. I know the paint quality on the Honda's of the early 2000s was horrible. Is that a factor? I haven't seen too many reliability issues in Hondas.

If you go through the consumer report in details, Honda and Acura are ranked lower due to buggy entertainment console - specially the touch screen version. Consumer report just doesn’t look at engine and transmission but look at reliability as a whole including in-car entertainment system.

[R2D2]

Lexus & Toyota leading the pack is not a surprise. But..but..Honda and Acura trailing Audi (!!) and BMW?! Whoa! Now that's a surprise alright and has me scratching my head.

And what the heck happened to Volvo in the US? My brother hasn't had a single problem with his S60 running 280 kms a day, up to 5 days a week in the UAE's 45-50 C heat! In fact he got a new set of tyres in Sept and bought Michelin Pilot Sports 4. The car came with came fitted with PS3s from the factory.

[hema4saran]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

The survey comprised of data from cars from 2000 to 2018 model years as well as 5,00,000 responses from Consumer Reports' members. More bias was given to mechanical issues in a vehicle than features like voice recognition. The report highlights mechanical problems which could leave drivers stranded and are expensive to repair.

Originally Posted by Nitrous Power

If you go through the consumer report in details, Honda and Acura are ranked lower due to buggy entertainment console - specially the touch screen version. Consumer report just doesn’t look at engine and transmission but look at reliability as a whole including in-car entertainment system.

To be honest, I didn't read the complete article. I read the above lines from Blackwasp's post and wrote my thoughts. Even then Honda's infotainment system from 2013 is much better when compared to Toyotas. Toyota still not provided Android Auto and Apple carplay in most of their cars here. Where as Honda has made it standard for the past 2 years in most of their cars now.

Again Lexus trackpad is one of the most hated system in otherwise very nice car. One of my ex manager drives a RX350 and she hates that trackpad based infotainment system compared to the touchscreen.

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by hema4saran

To be honest, I didn't read the complete article. I read the above lines from Blackwasp's post and wrote my thoughts. Even then Honda's infotainment system from 2013 is much better when compared to Toyotas. Toyota still not provided Android Auto and Apple carplay in most of their cars here. Where as Honda has made it standard for the past 2 years in most of their cars now.

Again Lexus trackpad is one of the most hated system in otherwise very nice car. One of my ex manager drives a RX350 and she hates that trackpad based infotainment system compared to the touchscreen.

You are right that Lexus track pad is much hated. However, it is not buggy - Acura/Honda system is very much buggy. I am talking this out of my own experience. We have both, Lexus and Acura in family and I will pick Lexus in-car entertainment system over Acura any day as Acura’s is very slow to react and mis-functions a lot. It doesn’t even reliably connect my iPhone X since day one and I am talking about a year now and so far no resolution in place.

Please go through following link. It has more details on why Honda/Acura are down:

https://jalopnik.com/every-single-am...f-o-1829974713

[srishiva]

In the past, reliability meant mostly engine/transmission etc. Now its all about the electronics, infotainment etc. None of these would have issues in the general mechanical areas and would have gotten reliable across all makers.

[giri1.8]

Volvo was on the list of least reliable cars last year too, but the only issue being the big touch screen infortainment system that controls almost everything! Almost no mechanical issues or major design flaws, but that tablet is what that has let Volvo down