Toyota tops latest reliability rankings; Ford remains mired in last
Consumer Reports\' latest reliability rankings are out.
Japanese brands have once again dominated Consumer Reports' Annual Auto Reliability rankings, but some European automakers are quickly gaining ground.
Toyota emerged as this year's most reliable automaker, with the company's Lexus and Toyota brands nabbing the top two spots in the 2013 rankings. Toyota's Scion took a sizable hit, however, dropping from No. 1 in last year's rankings to 11th place this year. CR cited poor reliability for the FR-S sports car as the reason for Scion's tumble. The FR-S' twin, the BRZ, was also to blame for Subaru's five position dive to 10th.
Honda's Acura placed third in this year's rankings -- up four from last year -- with Honda's namesake brand slipping two spots to eighth overall.
Audi was a surprise mover this year, with the German brand moving up four spots to occupy the fourth place on the list. Mazda, down one spot, rounded out the top five.
Volvo made the biggest improvement of any automaker, climbing 13 spots to No. 7. GMC was the highest ranked domestic brand at nine.
Luxury automakers Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and BMW finished about on par with the industry average for reliability.
There were some unexpected slips this year, including Kia (down six spots to 16), Hyundai (down 4 to 21) and Cadillac (down 14 to 25). Nissan also fell nine places to rank 22.
Ford and Lincoln were once again bottom dwellers in CR's rankings, beating out only BMW's last place MINI brand. Both Ford and Lincoln were dinged for their buggy MyTouch infotainment systems, but problems with Ford's EcoBoost engine also kept the brands in the basement.
CR was unable to rank Fiat, Jaguar, Mitsubishi, Land Rover and Tesla this year due to lack of data.
For those interested, the Subaru Forester was ranked the most reliable vehicle while the Ford C-Max plug-in hybrid was named the least reliable.