Lexus Takes a Beating
By Chris Woodyard and James R. Healey, USA TODAY
Toyota's vaunted Lexus luxury brand has fallen from first to fifth in Consumer Reports magazine's annual predicted reliability survey. Other luxury brands took worse drubbings.

The automaker's Toyota brand and its youth-oriented Scion brand are in the top three along with Honda and its Acura, the magazine says in its April auto issue, on sale next week.

Mercedes-Benz was last among 36 brands. Other luxury brands at the bottom: Land Rover, Hummer and Jaguar.

MORE CHARTS: Top picks by category, winners and losers from last survey

The magazine, operated by the non-profit Consumers Union, bases the reliability rankings on responses from 965,000 subscribers covering 1.3 million vehicles. The auto issue also includes the magazine's ratings of vehicles based on its own testing.

Some luxury brands improved: Nissan's Infiniti, Volkswagen's Audi, Ford Motor's Lincoln; Honda's Acura.

David Champion, the magazine's director of automotive testing, blamed one model for Lexus' fall, the midsize GS that was redesigned last year. He said the car had problems in three areas — body integrity, defined as rattles or poorly fitting panels; body hardware, such as locks and trunk mechanisms; and the sound system.

The model still rated average and earned a purchase recommendation. All other Lexus models were better than average.

Toyota officials looked at the bright side. "We had three of the top five. It reflects well on our products," spokesman Xavier Dominicis said.

Mercedes, DaimlerChrysler's luxury brand, tumbled four places to the cellar, "a very poor showing for a very expensive car," Champion said. Mercedes' quality is so imperiled that a 9-year-old Lexus LS 400 has potentially fewer problems than a new Mercedes ML. Champion said of Mercedes: "They perform well, have great fit and finish. But they seem to have a lot of problems with the seven-speed automatic transmission in all their products, and power accessories and electrical systems."

Mercedes disputed the findings. Today's models "are without question some of the best we have ever built," spokeswoman Donna Boland said. "If the survey doesn't reflect that, there's something wrong with the survey."

She noted that 74% of Mercedes models sold in the USA over the past 50 years are still on the road. A 2006 survey by R.L. Polk showed that Mercedes has the highest owner loyalty of any brand.

Mercedes had quality issues a couple of years ago, but they were fixed, she said. "We have been out-front about that. But the data we have on the new models absolutely support that the quality is right up there with people's expectations."

{Click the above link to see the following tables in the correct format}

RELIABILITY BY NATIONALITY
Nationality Best model Worst model
American 2001 Ford F-250 (2WD) 2001 Chrysler Town & Country
/Dodge Grand Caravan (AWD)
Asian 2001 Lexus GS300 2001 Hyundai Sonata
European 2001 BMW 3 Series Coupe & Convertible 2001 Volkswagen Cabrio
By problems per 100 vehicles

CR'S GOOD AND BAD BETS
CR Good Bets have performed well in CR's road tests and have had several years of better-than-average reliability. Bad Bets performed much worse than average.
Good bets Bad bets
Acura Integra BMW 7 Series
Acura MDX BMW X5 (v8)
Acura RL Chevrolet Astro
Acura RSX (except '06) Chevrolet Blazer
Acura TL Chevrolet Express
Acura TSX Chevrolet S-10 (4WD)
Buick Regal Chevrolet Venture, Uplander
Chevrolet Prizm Chrysler Town & Country (awd)
Honda Accord Dodge Caravan (awd)
Honda Civic GMC Jimmy
Honda Civic hybrid GMC Sonoma (4wd)
Honda CR-V GMC Safari
Honda Element GMC Savana
HondaOdyssey Infiniti QX56
Honda Pilot Jaguar S-Type
Honda Prelude Jaguar X-Type
Honda S2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Infiniti FX Kia Sedona (except '06)
Infiniti G20 Land Rover Discovery, LR3
Infiniti G35 Lincoln Aviator
Infiniti I30, I35 Lincoln Navigator
Infiniti QX4 Mercedes-Benz CLK
Lexus ES Mercedes-Benz M-Class (v8)
Lexus GS Mercedes-Benz S-Class (v8)
Lexus GX Mercedes-Benz SL
Lexus IS Nissan Armada
Lexus LS Nissan Titan
Lexus EX Oldsmobile Bravada
Lexus SC Oldsmobile Cutlass
Lincoln Town Car Oldsmobile Silhouette
Mazda Millenia Pontic Aztek
Mazda MX-5 Miata Pontiac Trans Sport, Montana, Montana SV6
Mazda Protégé Volkswagen Cabrio
Mazda3 Volkswagen Jetta (turbo, gas)
Nissan Altima Volkswagen Jetta (v6)
Nissan Maxima Volkswagen New Beetle (4 cyl.)
Nissan Pathfinder Volkswagen Touareg
Pontiac Vibe Volvo XC90 (6-cyl.)
Scion xB
Subaru Forester
Subaru Impreza
Subaru Impreza WRX
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Avalon
Toyota Camry
Toyota Camry Solara
Toyota Celica
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Echo
Toyota Highlander
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Matrix
Toyota Prius
Toyota RAV4
Toyota Sequia
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Tundra




From what I can tell, the top 5 are:
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. Scion
4. Acura
5. Lexus

 

Interesting,................

Merc doesnt seem to happy about its horrible rating hahaha.

 

Hey you forgot to include Nissan/Infiniti too in your top 5.

 

The entire good bets list includes only 4 cars that are not from a Japanese manufacturer and of those, one of them is the Pontiac Vibe, which is mechanically identical to the Toyota Matrix, so it's debatable if that should count as a Japanese manufactured car or not.

And MB can throw a fit all they want, but the fact remains that their cars are known for electronic gremlins.

 

Toyota
1
3
Honda
2
2
Scion
3
7
Acura
4
6
Lexus
5
1
Subaru
6
5
Hyundai
7
13
Infiniti
8
28
Mitsubishi
9
4
Mercury
10
8
Mazda
11
9
Audi
12
27
Lincoln
13
30
GMC
14
25
Volvo
15
12
Ford
16
16
Kia
17
14
Buick
18
20
BMW
19
21
Pontiac
20
17
Chevrolet
21
24
Dodge
22
18
Chrysler
23
15
Nissan
24
26
Saab
25
23
Suzuki
26
10
Volkswagen
27
33
Mini
28
11
Porsche
29
36
Saturn
30
29
Cadillac
31
22
Jeep
32
19
Jaguar
33
31
Hummer
34
35
Land Rover
35
34
Mercedes-Benz
36
32

 

Did a Japanese guy do this "predicted" list?

 

LOL.....

 

Wow, Audi is much higher than both BMW and Mercedes.... and I don't understand why Nissan was so low on the list. Is it because of their trucks?

 

Finally i dont look as crazy when i say Audi isnt that "bad" for reliability

These charts always confuse me, how can someone predict reliability? Is it from past owners experiences...?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...y_x.htm?csp=34

and the list

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...ort-list_x.htm

How 'Consumer Reports' survey ranks cars
Predicted reliability of brands and where they placed last year. Bold = gained; italics = lost.

Maker '07 '06

Toyota 1 3

Honda 2 2

Scion 3 7

Acura 4 6

Lexus 5 1

Subaru 6 5

Hyundai 7 13

Infiniti 8 28

Mitsubishi 9 4

Mercury 10 8

Mazda 11 9

Audi 12 27

Lincoln 13 30

GMC 14 25

Volvo 15 12

Ford 16 16

Kia 17 14

Buick 18 20

BMW 19 21

Pontiac 20 17

Chevrolet 21 24

Dodge 22 18

Chrysler 23 15

Nissan 24 26

Saab 25 23

Suzuki 26 10

Volkswagen 27 33

Mini 28 11

Porsche 29 36

Saturn 30 29

Cadillac 31 22

Jeep 32 19

Jaguar 33 31

Hummer 34 35

Land Rover 35 34

Mercedes-Benz 36 32

Source: Consumer Reports

 

Acura moving up Benz is last

 

Lexus being at #5 doesn't mean much, since it's still in a class of its own within the luxury segment.

And kudos to Hyundai for the gradual improvements!

 

Damn Mini's breaking down!!

 

Top 5: Toyota and Honda. Period.

Infiniti jumped up 20 postions; I wonder how much better they would have done if it was not for the lineup inclusion of the QX56 (one of the bad bets....thank you Canton, Ms assembly plant. )

 

LOL @ Benz...that really got my attention

 

I thought the same thing. They'd probably be way up there if the QX56 wasn't included.

 

i think most of that is from their suv's

 

WOW...huge improvement for Audi, Infinti and ......Lincoln?? Kudos to those 3 for the huge improvements.

 

one note, this is consumer reports, not JD Power which many reference for reliability.

 

Consumer Reports is arguably a better reliability reference than JD Power. However, CR's road testing is pretty suspect...

 

I don't buy into CR's road testing very much these days. They USED to have 2 page articles per car tested and go into details as to WHY they rated a certain category good or bad. In the past 8 or 10 years, it appears they've cut back. Today, they're good at reporting refrigerators and TV's, not cars.

 

From what I read when I was car shopping last summer, the only "bad" year for the QX56/Armada was when it debuted in 2004 (lots of issues). They threw a lot of resources at the problems and quickly corrected the gremlins produced at the plant and have been rated much higher in reliability for '05 and '06. I'm pretty sure they sent 100 or 200 of their top engineers directly from Japan to the US plant to correct the quality issues they had in late '04 / early '05.

These ratings seem to hold a grudge if a car has a bad year...They mark it as bad for the entire model run rather than just the bad year.... even if improvements are made during the model run.

<-- don't own a QX56 or Armada, just saying what I learned when I researched the Armada last summer.

 

Good to see Audi ranked higher than BMW even though people rag on Audi twice as much.

 

"Nissan's reliability has improved somewhat. Last year, the Quest, Armada, Titan, and especially the Infiniti QX56, all built at Nissan's Canton, Miss. factory, had the worst reliability in our survey. This year, while the predicted reliability of the Armada and QX56 are still about 135 percent worse than the average vehicle, they had half as many problems as they did in last year's survey. The Quest, while still much worse than average this year, had fewer problems than minivans from General Motors. "

 

 

I don't they surveyed any 04 TSX owners.

 

Wow, that chart says that Acura's best model in terms of quality is the TSX? That's surprising, I thought the RL would be the best quality model.

I would never see the TL there because of some of their build quality issues, plus it's not made in Japan

 

Holy crap look at the bar for pontiac. it's all over the place.

 

yeh and having their new Solstice as their worst car is not good either

 

I think we can all safely say to aviod M-B.

 

Damn seems like a hit or miss with Nissan/Infiniti

 

CR has lots of data, but I wish they present the data and do a bit more analysis and tell people how they got the data.

This is essentially 1-year data, and they said it's "predicted" reliability data. They also look at the old data and try to extrapolate. To look at overall reliability, one really needs to look at 3-yr, 5-yr - the kind of long term data. This list just gives a quick snapshot that doesn't represent the complete picture.

Also, I wish the list is separated based on vehicle price. A MB buyer will likely complain more about little rattles compared to a kia buyer. It's meaningless to compare 2 such companies given the fact that the products are drastically different. It's more meaningful to compare the likes of Lexus, MB, BMW, Infiniti, Acura in one group.

 

Lets see... CR is worth about 10 cents which makes this list worth about 1 cent. I subscribe and their lists are SO biased and misleading it's not even funny...


So if you value a 1 cent study to make a decision on a car this is it!

 

I think that should at least do something for acura sales in my opinion. I mean most people use CR to buy a car and having them as the number 1 luxury car company has to mean something. The problem is not everyone sees acura as a luxury car company. However its still something to be proud of.

I also am glad audi is higher up there as well. My granddad has an 99 A6 thats pushing 110k now and its running great. He said its had some minor problems but the extended warranty was well worth it.

 

how do you figure that?

i think it's great and all to have good reliability, but if you look at the list, people STILL buy a lot of MB's, BMW's, VW's, etc. etc. etc...brands that are lower on the list.
Reliability may be a factor in car buying, but to most people it's only a tiny factor.

 

I didnt say it ment everything but I said it ment something. I would think to most people buying a car they wouldnt want it in the shop all the time. Granted I agree I do think a lot of people just go out and buy a MB because its the MB and dont do any research just because its got that name its developed over the years.

 

i dont know anyone personally that has used CR to buy a car