Japanese brands dominate list of top cars in U.S.

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | March 2, 2006 | Dee-Ann Durbin (A.P.)

[Graybeard58]

DETROIT -- For the first time in nine years, all of the top picks in Consumer Reports' annual vehicle guide are made by Japanese automakers.

The Honda Civic is the magazine's top small sedan, while the Toyota Highlander Hybrid is the top mid-sized sport utility vehicle, according to results released Wednesday. Vehicles from Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., round out the top picks in 10 categories.

Asian brands also fared best in the magazine's survey of vehicle reliability. Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus brand was first, while Honda was second and the Toyota brand was third. Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand was the only domestic nameplate to crack the top 10.

Consumer Reports' rankings are important to automakers, even though companies can't use the ratings in their advertising. Consumer Reports spokeswoman Lauren Hackett said the April auto issue is consistently the magazine's most popular, selling more than 300,000 copies at newsstands. That's twice as many copies as its second-most popular issue, the November electronics issue.

Consumer Reports named its top picks based on road and track tests, evaluations of comfort, convenience and fuel economy, crash protection ratings from the government and insurance industry and readers' reliability rankings. The magazine said it recently tested more than 200 vehicles to come up with its top picks.

Honda had the most winners, snagging top picks in five of the 10 categories. Besides the redesigned Civic, the Honda Accord was the top family sedan between $20,000 and $30,000 and the Acura TL was the top upscale sedan between $30,000 and $40,000. The Honda Odyssey was the top minivan and the Honda Ridgeline, which is Honda's first entry in the pickup market, was the top pickup.

Toyota and Subaru each had two winners, including the Subaru Forester for small SUV and the Toyota Prius for "green car." Nissan had one, the M35 luxury sedan, which the magazine called "an excellent balance of performance, comfort and handling."

Reliability rankings are based on a survey of Consumer Reports subscribers who are asked if they have had serious problems with their vehicles in the past 12 months. The survey questions readers about 17 different trouble spots. For this year's survey, readers rated their experience with 810,000 vehicles from the 1998 through 2005 model years.

Consumer Reports said Japanese and Korean brands had 12 problems per 100 vehicles, while U.S. automakers had 18 problems and European makers had 21 problems. Asian and U.S. automakers have been improving their scores but appeared to stall in 2005, the magazine said. European automakers' ratings haven't changed substantially in the last four years, the magazine said.

After Lexus, Honda and Toyota, the brands rounding out the top ten for reliability were Mitsubishi, Subaru, Acura, Scion, Mercury, Mazda and Suzuki. The ten lowest-rated brands were Audi, Infiniti, Saturn, Lincoln, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Land Rover, Hummer and Porsche.

[cashion]

I meant GMC...

Gotcha. My former truck was an '89 GMC S15 (pre-Sonoma), and I currently drive an '01 Sonoma. My brother also drives an '01, and my dad has a '91 as his "beater". Dad's former truck was an '88 S15, and he also has a '99 GMC Sierra. I guess you could say we love our GMC trucks! 8)

[oxlongm]

The whole communist manifesto? No. But the idea that one group of people deserves to be paid without needing to earn it -- that's common to both ways of thinking.

If all organizations that rate cars put the Japanese makers at or near near the top, and consumers in general consider the used ones more valuable on the resale market... it could be that the whole world is biased, but that seems pretty unlikely. More logical to conclude that Toyota and Honda earned their good reputations the hard way and are reaping the benefits now. A few anecdotes of badly made Japanese cars doesn't change that.

Detroit's narrowed the gap in quality lately, but they have too many decades of neglect to overcome, and people's perceptions aren't going to change overnight.

Even though Japanese and European cars have kept getting more popular, the U.S. economy has had a better combination of economic growth and low unemployment. It may be because as a whole, we demand quality for our dollar and don't let bad money drive out good. Most of our industries compete very well this way. Our carmakers are coming around to the idea, slowly.

[xzins]

I was driving all over today in the old Sonoma. Great engine. Great suspension and frame. Gotta fix the body a bit, but I use it for everything from firewood to furniture to mulch.

[brainstem223]

I wouldnt have a puke looking thing like that in the cememtary parked next to my grave!

[gogogodzilla]

Bah! The Caterham 7 is the car for me.

0-60 in 3.1 seconds.

[gogogodzilla]

Volkswagen...

What does that acronym stand for?

[Tailback]

From what I know of the American automotive industry there are very serious problems they can't seem to unlearn.

That's because most of the engineers, designers, and senior executives have been there forever and won't be leaving voluntarily. Look at Dodge since Daimler took over, great designs, selling well, a fresh image. GM needs a serious cleaning out of the top people and they need a completely fresh approach. My brand new Toyota Tacoma double cab TRD Sport is being delivered to my doorstep Friday by the internet sales manager from Broadway Toyota of Portland.

[When do we get liberated?]

Thats a shame, you could have had a Silverado.

[Tailback]

Volkswagen... What does that acronym stand for?

What does Volksagen mean? Peoples car. Adolf Hitler and Dr. Ferdinand Porsche teamed up and designed what we call the beetle. What's your point?

[Tailback]

Thats a shame, you could have had a Silverado.

Why would I want a Silverado? I need good gas mileage so the Tacoma V6 is perfect. The Tacoma has a much higher resale value so in 10 years I'll have a lot more in trade in value. Toyota has a much higher reliability rating than Chevy. (the last Chevy I had was a complete piece of junk) If I was looking to tow something I'd get a Dodge w/cummins diesel.

[gogogodzilla]

The original post had acronyms made up for various automakers... like these:

So I was wondering what V.O.L.K.S.W.A.G.E.N. would stand for in the same light.

No
Intelligent
Service
Station
Accepts
Nissans

Cracked
Head
Every
Valve
Rattles
Oil
Leaks
Every
Time

Something
An
A$$hat would
Buy

Poor
Old
Numbnut
Thinks
It's
A
Cadillac

[Tailback]

RE #171

Ah, I didn't understand your question, sorry.

[VeniVidiVici]

Toyota does build reliable, completely boring and uninspiring cars.

Sometimes you can even take a corner without the car wallowing all over the place - as long as you're going under 20mph.

Soccer moms give them a two-thumbs up!!

[When do we get liberated?]

You are incorrect in the resale value department. I appraise trades at an independent used car dealership every day. Check the mileage stats on your truck. a truck or SUV gets crappy mileage because it pushes alot of air. Not for the motor size. When Toyota compares mileage to other companies they stipulate a 4.10 axle in the Chevy and all Toyota Tacomas come with a 3.92 rear axle. A Silverado with a V-8 and a 3.08 axle will do better than the 4.10 equipped model and still hav more cojones that the Toy Motor
Steve
(Former Toyota salesman)