Honda surpasses Toyota as most reliable car in USA

[ClevlndStemer]

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).

[Barry_v]

its fortunate we dont have to endure american built toyotas. its a pity we still have Land Rovers inflicted on us. Why do otherwise intelligent people buy them? its like buying a servo hot dog. everyone knows its overpriced, stale and covered in bacteria YET THEY STILL BUY THEM!?!

[hy_boi]

Good to see honda get up there, i'm suprised they don't have a bigger market share here in Oz and they make some very fine machines, its prob still having that grandpa name tag I guess

[new2ford]

This is not surprising news from the European end. The JD Powers and Top Gear consumer surveys (and warranty-suppliers' reports like the Reliability Index) consistently rate Skoda, Honda and Mazda at the top of the scale (behind Lexus - with Skoda knocking off Lexus from time to time!). The thing is in Australia these top quality (and better designed) cars sell well below Toyota sales of equivalent models (well Skoda is yet to show having only just been released here). So the perverse thing about the market in Australia is that people say they're concerned about quality yet they don't buy the top quality (and often better design also) available to them at the price level. Emotion or perception still play in the lead.

[hy_boi]

I think it has alot to do with Aussie mentality, day in day out I get customers coming in going. "I'll never own anything else but a toyota" on the other scale I get alot of people coming in just to say that they'll never buy a toyota.

Spose this also reflects the holden and ford issue as well. though yet to meet anybody whos said they'll only ever own hyundai's lol

[Homer1]

This is excellent news....well done Honda!

[ClevlndStemer]

I wouldn't bother with anything in the Toyota range.

Jazz > Yaris
Civic > Corolla
Accord > Camry

That is just between Honda and Toyota.

[GS608]

the first two hondas not only look like girly cars but just arent my cup of tea, id rather a corolla than a civic..

also honda have more of a ricer boy image than toyota, why not just buy a ford :P

Jazz > Yaris > Fiesta

Civic > Corolla > Focus

Accord > Camry > Falcon/Mondeo

[Dave_au]

I dont think Toyota would be too worried, the industry standard is the JD Powers report and both Toyota and Lexus feature in the top five, with Lexus being on top for the majority of the last 13 years.

[Fairlane]

Not surprised the American built Toyotas arent a patch on the Japanese or Australian assembled models.

Australian Camry > US Camry
Australian Aurion > US Camry V6
Toyota Kluger (Jap) > Toyota Highlander (US)

and by all accounts the Camry Solara is utterly useless

Lexus of course is top of the crop, but cars like Lincoln are catching up. Dont think Toyota should be really worried not in Australia at least.

[MethodX]

At least the domestics hav improved a lot.
Thats the main thing.

[Homer1]

Originally Posted by Dave_au

I dont think Toyota would be too worried, the industry standard is the JD Powers report and both Toyota and Lexus feature in the top five, with Lexus being on top for the majority of the last 13 years.

Either way, the Japanese continue to dominate these surveys, whether it be Honda, Toyota or Mazda. The anti-Japanese brigade can continue to kid themselves, but the JD Power and sales results remains consistantly the same.