Posted on 03/02/2006 6:09:12 AM PST by 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.
I'm sure that the bosses at GM and Ford have similarly dismissed Consumer Reports and are happily producing cars as before.
I think the Big 2 will have to improve quality and then, like the Korean manufacturers breaking into the market, give impressive warranties. Maybe 5 years/60000 miles or even 7 years/84000 miles would show that they are confident in their quality.
Without Japanese competition, American cars now would be like Pintos and Vegas "improved" by an additional 25 years of cost cutting.
"I guess all Consumer Reports subscribers could be tree-hugging leftists too..."
I don't have any data, but my guess is that the majority of subscribers are leftists. Just a guess.
I don't know the subscriber base, but I think the slant of the editors is obvious. And we all know that polls and statistics can be manipulated any way you choose.
BTW, I think Ford and GM make cars that aren't as good as the Japanese, but I also think they are close on some models. This is like throwing an anchor to a drowning man.
I use Cuban cigars to light my KOOLs.
I'm sure the Titan is an OK vehicle, but it only comes in one wheelbase, and there's no diesel engine available, as far as I know.
The domestics still have the Japanese beat in the full-size pickup category, IMO.
"Where I live in middle america, a 30,000 dollar car is half the price of a decent house and a third of the price of really nice house."
For 30K here in NYC, you get two shingles and a doorstop...
you too 'eh
my dad lives by that mag
he even extols the CR virtues of the top pick peanut butter...ugh!
I have a Mitsibishi Galant. I love it. Every bit as reliable and enjoyable as a Camry or Accord and cost a couple grand less.
Takes a bit more of this for a Porsche or Audi:
$$$$
Exactly. Mr.-lib-Nader got his start putting down American cars, and he's never stopped doing so.
Correction, they are a charity under 501(c), 527 or 4947(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue code.
That is exactly the unspoken desire of that "Consumers Union" publication.
If I was a VP of Marketing for Ford in Dearborn, I would reply, "Hippies buy cars also."
Then I would fire you on the spot.
I don't have any data, but my guess is that the majority of subscribers are Republicans. Just a guess.
And so did Ford, Mercury, SAAB, and Subaru. All other Hondas (except the Pilot) are bad news in rear enders, which kept them out of the Gold and Silver awards. Same with Acuras. Maybe next year...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.