Japanese automakers dominat Consumer Reports survey

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Japanese automakers dominate Consumer Reports survey | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Toyota Motor Corp. dominated Consumer Reports list of 2009 Top Picks released today, and its Prius won a new award from the magazine: Best New-Car Value.
Japanese automakers held the top four overall spots in the influential magazine's survey, based on more than 50 tests of 80 different vehicles. The winners ranked high in road tests, reliability and safety requirements.
Toyota won five of the 10 Top Picks: Best Small SUV, Toyota RAV4; Best Minivan, Toyota Sienna; Best Overall Vehicle, Lexus LS 460; Best Midsized SUV, Toyota Highlander; and Best Green Car, Toyota Prius.

American vehicles were pummeled in the magazine's April survey, with Detroit's Big Three finishing in three of the lowest four spots. Overall, the Detroit automakers fared worse than they did in the 2008 survey.
Chrysler LLC, which tied with Suzuki for last place in the 2008 survey, held the bottom rank alone this year. The magazine again didn't recommend a single Jeep, Dodge or Chrysler vehicle.
Of the 15 automakers ranked, Chrysler finished 15th, GM 14th and Ford Motor Co. 12th.
The magazine did praise new Ford vehicles like the Flex and new F-150.
"Ford continues to improve in reliability, and some of its cars now rival the best from Japan," said the magazine said, which now recommends 70 percent of Ford's vehicles it tested.
The magazine also noted that "new models from GM now rank among the best in our testing, although overall reliability, even among some of the new models, still lags behind most of the competition."

U.S. models accounted for 8 of the 10 worst scores in testing and reliability ratings, with the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara scoring just 17 out of 100. The Lexus LS 460L scored a 99 out of a 100 as the all-around highest.
The magazine recommends 95 percent of Honda's vehicles tested, 100 percent of Subaru's and 89 percent of Toyota's. It only recommends 17 percent of GM's and none of Chrysler's.