US Consumer Magazine Readers Praise Toyota, Honda

VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
October 26, 2010 at 8:10 pm

A U.S. consumer magazine reports that its readers think that two Japanese automakers — Toyota and Honda — manufacture the most reliable vehicles.

Consumer Reports surveyed its subscribers’ experiences with their 1.3 million vehicles. The magazine said readers gave high ratings to most Toyota and Honda models and that the Japanese car-makers continue to dominate the annual ratings. Consumer Reports said it was reinstating its recommendations for eight Toyota models that in the last year had problems with sticking accelerator pedals.

The magazine said that overall the major Asian automakers are doing well, while it described Ford as the “most reliable” U.S. automaker.

Consumer Reports said that General Motors has “improved considerably” in producing reliable vehicles even as it still was “far from tops” among all manufacturers.

The magazine said that while the reliability of European manufacturers has been improving, “momentum seems to have stalled.”

The magazine’s readers rated the Porsche Boxster, a sports car, as the most reliable vehicle. They said the two worst are sedans, the Audi A6 3.OT and the Jaguar XF.

According to the survey, Chrysler is the lowest-ranked manufacturer. The magazine recommended only one of its vehicles, the four-wheel drive Dodge Ram 1500.

Some information in this story was provided by Bloomberg.