If reliability is the No. 1 trait your next car must have, you may then opt to visit your nearest Lexus dealership before considering anything from the Ford dealership across the street as far as Consumer Reports is concerned.
Lexus, Toyota and Acura dominate the consumer magazine's Top 10 in reliability for 2013, with a total of seven Japanese automakers taking almost all of the marbles; the only non-Japanese makes to make the Top 10 were Audi (No. 4), Volvo (No. 7) and GMC (No. 9).
Meanwhile, Ford was pushed into the No. 26 slot after being stranded in the 27th position last year. Lincoln fell back to No. 27 on reliability, with BMW's MINI in dead last on the side of the road. Reasons for both Ford and Lincoln being where they are include complaints about the automaker's MyFordTouch system, and problems with their EcoBoost engine.
If you're at the Toyota dealership, however, Consumer Reports recommends anything but the Camry, Prius v or RAV4. The magazine retracted its recommendations for the trio due to poor results in crash testing as conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a decision the publication doesn't take lightly according to Consumer Reports Director of Auto Testing Jake Fisher:
Honestly, we don't take this lightly, but virtually every vehicle now in the family sedan category has been tested and the only one that has gotten a 'poor' is the Camry. At this point, we don't feel we can continue to recommend people buy a Camry when there's other good choices out there that do better on the test.
That said, there may be hope for redemption regarding the Camry: Toyota's engineers have gone over the car's failings, and will retest with IIHS in December.
Fisher also said that with 50 vehicles tested by the IIHS, his publication has enough data to begin weeding out any vehicle with a "poor" rating. Thus, expect to see more recommendations retracted on some cars the next time you head to the newsstand to pick up the latest issue of Consumer Reports.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
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