One of the attributes of a car that is important to car buyers is its reliability. That is why a brand's reputation for reliability goes a long way in promoting, marketing and selling their cars. And to aid consumers in choosing the most reliable car in the market, Consumer Reports recently conducted a study on the dependability of new cars for the 2007 model year. The result of their study shows that last year's leader, Lexus, have slipped and Toyota now has the top spot.
Lexus, the Toyota Motor Corporation's luxury brand, occupied the first place in last year's study. This year though, the brand slipped to fifth place. This shows that even luxury brands are also prone to succumb to malfunctions. The reason for the slide by Lexus is the fact that GS models only received average ratings in terms of their reliability.
Aside from the fact that the GS models from Lexus only received average ratings, other new cars in their lineup has received satisfactory ratings though. In fact, the study did say that the most reliable car is from Lexus. Talk about irony.
Toyota is now the most reliable brand in the world and it sure is a distinction that could only help them in their quest to be the world's largest automobile manufacturer. Once again, Toyota leads the way for Asian brands in the study. The top five slots in the study are occupied by Asian brands which say a lot about the dedication of these car makers in the production of dependable vehicles. Honda, another Japanese car manufacturer, is the second most reliable brand according to the study. This is the second straight year that Honda managed to cling to that spot. Helping the brand achieve this feat are the cars in their lineup like the compact Fit and the very popular Civic.
Another Toyota brand, this time, the Scion, takes the third spot. The brand aimed at the younger generation buyers managed to get good reliability ratings for the vehicles in their lineup that are composed of boxy and stylish vehicles. Lexus, last year's leader, fell to the fifth place due to the aforementioned reason. Since the top five spots are occupied by brands made by Toyota and Honda, that leaves the fourth place to Honda's luxury brand, Acura.
The top five reliable brands have come from Asia but it seems that domestic brands are closing in on the gap and may in no time enter the top ten. So far, only Mercury is the domestic brand that managed to land a spot in the top ten most reliable vehicle brands.
Other US based brands have considerably increased their reputation in terms of reliability. Lincoln has shown the biggest improvement among all other domestic brands. It leapt to the thirteenth place from last year's 30th spot. GMC, another American brand, made significant improvements in terms of dependability. From last year's 25th spot, it is now the 14th most reliable brand. The reason for the jump in the standing of GMC is favorable reliability rating for their Yukon SUV. Ford, on the other hand, remains unchanged in its 16th spot as unchanged as the reliability of a component. Buick and Chevrolet also made slight improvements over last year's ratings. But not all domestic brands have improved their standing. Jeep, even though touted to produce "rugged off-road" vehicles, slid to 32nd place from last year's 19th place standing.
As far as European brands are concerned, Audi made good improvements while most lag behind the competition. The reason is below average ratings of reliability of European cars. Mercedes-Benz slid four positions to take the place of Porsche in the last spot.
