Today Consumer Reports released their annual rankings of automaker reliability. Now, you would think that automaker reliability may change slightly from year to year but, according to CR, you’d be wrong. This year, Ford dropped from 10th to 20th in reliability while Lexus moved up seven spots, Mazda moved up eight, and Jeep moved up seven. Porche, on the other hand, fell 25 spots, from second to 27th!
The survey is sent out to the magazine’s 1.3 million subscribers each year and results are based on survey responses regarding the 2002 to 2011 model years. There are (at least) two major problems with this. The first is that Consumer Reports subscribers may not accurately represent the population. The second is that all makes and models are not equally represented. Chrysler, for example, rose 12 spots to 15th on the basis of only two models that were owned by survey respondents. The full list, courtesy of cars.com, is below, with last year’s rankings in parentheses:
1. Scion (1)
2. Lexus (8)
3. Acura (3)
4. Mazda (12)
5. Honda (4)
6. Toyota (6)
7. Infiniti (5)
8. Subaru (7)
9. Nissan (14)
10. Volvo (8)
11. Hyundai (11)
12. Kia (13)
13. Jeep (20)
14. Lincoln (15)
15. Chrysler (27)
16. Volkswagen (16)
17. Chevrolet (17)
18. Mercedes-Benz (22)
19. BMW (23)
20. Ford (10)
21. Dodge (24)
22. GMC (21)
23. Mini (25)
24. Buick (18)
25. Cadillac (19)
26. Audi (26)
27. Porsche (2)
28. Jaguar (not rated)
Memoirs of a SLACer 