Honda surpasses Toyota as most reliable car in USA

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http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...rticleID=45063

Toyota's quality reputation suffers a glitch

Christopher Jensen, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29/10/07

America's influential Consumer Reports magazine says Toyotas will no longer be automatically recommended after a Camry V6 and Tundra 4WD recorded disappointing reliability results, writes CHRISTOPHER JENSEN.

For all its juggernaut progress in sales, Toyota's quality is "showing cracks in its armour" and two of its most important models cannot be recommended for reliability reasons, a survey conducted by a powerful American magazine, Consumer Reports, has found.

Published by the non-profit Consumers Union, the survey - which evaluated 1.3 million vehicles owned by subscribers - found that Toyota's V6 Camry and new V8 4WD Tundra had enough problems that, despite their other virtues, the magazine said it could not recommend them.

Toyota officials responded that the maker still dominated the magazine's recommended vehicles (with 17 of the 39 models) and "overall this survey reflects well on our products". An official said that the maker was constantly taking steps "to continue to sharpen quality and enhance customer satisfaction".

The study put Honda first in reliability, followed by its luxury brand, Acura. Then came Scion, Toyota's youth brand. In descending order the others in the top 10 were: Subaru, Toyota, Lexus, Infiniti, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Buick.

Overall the Asian brands are still on top, the magazine says, with Hyundai and Kia taking spots in the middle of the pack.

The traditional domestic American car makers are also doing better with Ford taking the lead, the magazine said.

Ninety-three percent of the Ford models were rated average or better than average in reliability. That compared to 49 per cent of General Motors' models and 67 per cent of the Chrysler models. Ford ranked 13th in the survey of 36 brands, while Chrysler was 20th and GM 28th.

The new survey means Toyota will no longer get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to safety, the magazine says.

"Because of these findings, Consumer Reports will no longer recommend any new or redesigned Toyota-built models without reliability data on a specific design. Previously, new and redesigned Toyota models were recommended because of the automaker's excellent track record, even if Consumer Reports didn't have sufficient reliability data on the new model," the magazine says in a statement

The magazine says the most serious complaints on the US-built V6 Camrys were problems with the automatic transmission, brakes and squeaks and rattles. (In the Australian market Camrys and the V6 Aurion are locally made.) However, the Camry Hybrid and the four-cylinder Camrys are still recommended, the magazine says.

The worst brand was Land Rover, which has routinely been the worst or close to worst in studies conducted by JD Power, a US marketing firm. Other poor performers were Hummer (35th), Mercedes-Benz (33rd) and Volkswagen (31st).