There's a lot to consider when buying a car. Ideally, a biodiesel unit would be desirable because it doesn't contribute to greenhouse gasses overall, and the fuel source is infinitely renewable. Walking or biking of course are better for your body. However, if you're limited to a conventional car, there are a number of things to consider--I'm only reporting on one of those things here, and that's reliability.
When asked why I bought a Japanese car that I think is pretty mediocre in most respects, I answer that I got a Toyota because one of the most reliable brands, if not the most reliable.
Lately, people have been telling me that this may have been true years ago, American cars have caught up to the Japanese cars in quality and reliability.
To find out, I went to consumerreports.org and looked up the data myself. I'm not sure how the rumor that American cars caught up to Japanese ones started, but though American cars have improved their reliability substantially, the Japanese have been improving theirs more.
Here is the report I wrote up on the data I found on consumerreports.org two weeks ago.
The most surprising thing in my opinion, German cars have gone sharply downhill from top position in reliability to bottom. Note that no German cars made it into the most reliable list, though a Korean company (Hyundai) did! Most interestingly IMO, Mercedes-Benz, which used to make the most reliable autos of any reported on by CR, now has such poor reliability that they do not have a single model reliable enough to be in CR's recommended list! Apparently when they merged with Chrysler, they kept American auto engineering and German corporate management, instead of the other way around.
Here are the reliability reports for nine different types of vehicles. American cars Have gotten better in relation to English, German and Swedish vehicles, but nobody even comes close to the Japanese when it comes to reliability.
Sedans:
In the top ten for reliability, all ten are Japanese. Two are American-branded Japanese cars (Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion, which are both made by Mazda as the Mazda 6 and changed only cosmetically for Ford/Lincoln.) In the bottom ten, most of them are average in reliability except three are significantly below average: a Volvo, a Chevy and a Volkswagen.
Upscale Cars:
Only five models on this list are 40% or more more reliable than average. They are all Japanese. Only three models are 20% or more below average. One is Swedish, one is German and one is English.
Luxury Cars:
Four are 40% or more better than average, three are Japanese and one is Swedish. Eleven are more than 20% worse than average. None of these are Japanese. Two are American, seven are German and two are English.
Large Cars:
One is more than 40% better than average, it is Japanese. Interestingly, one is almost 40% above average, and it is a Buick. Three are more than 20% below average, all of them are American.
Small cars:
Eight are more than 40% above average, and two are right at 40% above average. All of these are Japanese. In fact, the only non-Japanese car on the list that's better than average at all is the Ford Focus. Seven are 20% or more below average. Two are German, four are American and surprise, one is Japanese.
Wagons & Hatchbacks:
Four are more than 40% above average. All are Japanese. One of the four is an American-branded Japanese car (The Pontiac Vibe, which is a Toyota Matrix.) Four are 20% or more below average, two of those are American and two is Swedish.
Small SUVs:
Nine are 40% or more above average, all of them are Japanese. Five are 20% or more below average. Two are Japanese (Suzukis), one is Korean, and two are American.
Medium SUVs:
Nine are 40% or more above average. One is American, the rest are Japanese. Twenty-three are 20% or more below average. None of those 23 are Japanese. Of those twenty-three, twelve are American, seven are German, two are English.
Large SUVs:
Only one is 40% or more better than average, it's Japanese. Five are more than 20% below average, Two of those are Japanese and three are American.
Here's a ranking of the reliability.
Number of exceptionally reliable models per country:
Japan-------51 USA----------1 Sweden------1 Germany-----0 England------0 Korea-------0
The winner is clear.
Number of unreliable vehicles per country:
USA----------30 Germany-----18 Japan----------5 Sweden-------4 England-------2 Korea----------1
The USA seems to fare pretty badly in this, but remember, Germany has far fewer models sold in the USA than US car companies do. Percentage-wise, I'm guessing that Germany might have the same amount or even more unreliable cars than the US.
Some more details from Consumer Reports in 2007:
(there are discrepancies between their stats and mine because I chose different criteria for "most reliable" and "least reliable." My criteria are stated under each vehicle category above)
____________________________ "Of the 47 vehicles on the most-reliable list, 39 were from Japanese automakers. Six came from the domestic automakers, and one each came from South Korea and Europe. Twenty-one Toyota vehicles earned top ratings. Honda had 11 vehicles at the top of our ratings. Ford, General Motors, and Subaru each had three, Mitsubishi and Nissan each had two, while Hyundai and Mini each had one."
"Of the 45 least reliable models, 19 were European, 20 were from U.S. manufacturers, 5 were Japanese, and 1 was South Korean. General Motors had
12, Mercedes-Benz had 8, Ford and Nissan each had 5, Chrysler and Volkswagen each had 3, BMW and Jaguar each had 2, while Kia, Land Rover, Porsche, Saab, and Volvo each had 1." ____________________________And that's that. Japanese cars are, on average, far and away the most reliable; American cars have been steadily improving but are still poor, and German cars have gone sharply downhill from top position in the 1970s to the bottom today.