Consumer Reports says Toyota slips in reliability

If anyone actually cars what Consumer Reports says......

Consumer Reports says Toyota slips in reliability

Automotive News October 16, 2007 - 1:30 pm ET

DETROIT (Reuters) - Consumer Reports said today that it was reversing a practice of recommending all new Toyota cars and trucks after two models earned below-average rankings in a closely watched reliability study.

The step marked the latest setback for Toyota Motor Corp. after a period of fast growth in the United States that has made it the No. 2 player in the world's largest auto market.

In recent years, Japanese auto brands, led by Toyota, have dominated Consumer Reports' influential study of the most reliable new vehicles.

Besides its influence with car shoppers, the annual study is used by major automakers as a proxy for their performance in improving and maintaining vehicle quality.

Although Toyota ranked third in reliability behind only Honda Motor Co. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Subaru, Consumer Reports also found two Toyota models had "below average" predicted reliability.

Those two models were the V-6 version of Toyota's flagship Camry sedan and the four-wheel-drive, V-8 version of its new Tundra pickup truck.

"Consumer Reports will no longer recommend any new or redesigned Toyota-built models without reliability data on a specific design," the publication said in a statement. "Previously, new and redesigned models were recommended because of the automaker's excellent track record."

The same study found gains for Ford Motor Co., which landed three models on the magazine's "most reliable" list.

Consumer Reports ranked the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and the automaker's market-leading F-150 pickup truck with a V-6 engine as among the most-reliable new vehicles on the market.

"Ford continues to improve," David Champion, director of auto testing for Consumer Reports, said in a statement. "We believe Toyota is aware of its issues and trying to fix problems quickly."

Representatives for Toyota and Ford were not immediately available for comment. Champion briefed reporters in Detroit on the results of the annual survey today.

In the first nine months of this year, Toyota had a 16.2 percent share of the U.S. market for new cars and light trucks, behind only GM at

23.8 percent.

But the Japanese automaker's fast growth since 2000, when it had less than 10 percent of the U.S. market, has left it facing new pressure and scrutiny.

Two high-ranking executives have defected from Toyota's U.S. subsidiary in recent months to join U.S. automakers. The most recent of those was Jim Farley, who left Toyota's luxury Lexus division, to take over as top marketing executive at Ford.

In September, Toyota's North American chief, Jim Press, left the automaker after a 37-year career to become vice chairman at newly private Chrysler LLC.

Toyota, which has won credit with consumers for its reputation for quality and fuel-efficiency, has also come under fire from environmental groups.

Although Toyota dominates the market for fuel-efficient hybrids with its Prius, it has joined Detroit-based automakers in lobbying against stringent increases in fleetwide fuel economy.

Consumer Reports is published by the nonprofit Consumers Union. The magazine accepts no paid advertising.

The publication's "predicted reliability" study for new model vehicles is based on an average of consumer ratings of the same model in the recent years.

The magazine surveys readers and visitors to its Web site about their experience with the cars and trucks they own.

Reply to
Ed White
Loading thread data ...

I really do question Consumer Reports methods in how they come up with their data. For one thing, you can't provide your feedback on your car unless you become a subscriber. In fact, in the past, I have had several cars that were recommended by CR but they were problematic. In retrospect, I checked with JD Powers and their reliability was accurate (ie. listed as being poor) while they were not listed as bad or poor with CR. The same goes with most of their reviews. I take everything these guys right with a grain of salt. But in all fairness, I will avoid a product if they don't recommend it but I won't usually buy a product they recommend.

Reply to
BS

What happened? I thought Consumer Reports and its subscribers were highly biased against American cars and covered up any defects they found in Japanese cars. Say it ain't so!

Reply to
Norm De Plume

Toyotas vehicles have never been much better than any other manufacturers vehicles, on average, The only thing that has changed is Toyota in now selling vehicles in the US in the millions, rather than the hundreds of thousands, as in the past. Today every manufacturer makes some that are not up to snuff. The more they sell, the more of their bad ones will surface.

The truth of the mater is CRs latest report proves how unreliable are their opinions, not Toyotas. If their surveys are looked at as what the actually indicate, percentages that fail, one will see that ALL manufactures today are making great reliable vehicles. They ALL fall within the 2%, that are not up to stuff, were ALL manufactures products reside. The fact vehicles, or any other product for that matter, are represented on a LIST naturally one will be on top and another on the bottom.

Imagine if the quality of Picassos art was placed on a list, one would be above average another below average. That is ridiculous.

The very fact the Tundra 2WD truck can be one of the best yet the 4WD be one of the worst is just as ridiculous. To use CRs reports as the criteria for a buyer to make the decision to chose or reject a Tundra, or any particular brand, when purchasing a vehicle is really stupid

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

How reliable are Picassos, and how often do they break down, except from accidental abuse by Steve Wynn?

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

That's OK, we did not expect you to understand the comparison. LOL

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Do you understand that Picassos aren't fungible, unlike identical cars?

Also why did you lie by claiming that all car makers have a failure rate of about 2% when it's not true? Toyota, Subaru, and Honda do, but other manufacturers average 50% - 100% more defects in the first two years.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

Do you understand that Picassos aren't fungible, unlike identical cars?

Also why did you lie by claiming that all car makers have a failure rate of about 2% when it's not true? Toyota, Subaru, and Honda do, but other manufacturers average 50% - 100% more defects in the first two years.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

Apparently statistics are not your forte LOL

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Where are you getting this idea? JD Power conduct surveys for this sort of thing and the difference between the best Japanese manufacturers and the worst US manufacturers is in the noise range.

See

formatting link
Three year old Buicks suffered from 145 problems per 100 vehicles (an average of 1.45 problems per vehicle). 3 year old Toyotas suffered 178 problems per 100 vehicles (1.78 problems per vehicle). The industry average was 215 problems per 100 vehicles. I doubt if the difference between any if the top 25 manufacturers was statistically significant.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.