Posted on 03/02/2006 6:09:12 AM PST by Graybeard58
DETROIT -- For the first time in nine years, all of the top picks in Consumer Reports' annual vehicle guide are made by Japanese automakers.
The Honda Civic is the magazine's top small sedan, while the Toyota Highlander Hybrid is the top mid-sized sport utility vehicle, according to results released Wednesday. Vehicles from Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., round out the top picks in 10 categories.
Asian brands also fared best in the magazine's survey of vehicle reliability. Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus brand was first, while Honda was second and the Toyota brand was third. Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand was the only domestic nameplate to crack the top 10.
Consumer Reports' rankings are important to automakers, even though companies can't use the ratings in their advertising. Consumer Reports spokeswoman Lauren Hackett said the April auto issue is consistently the magazine's most popular, selling more than 300,000 copies at newsstands. That's twice as many copies as its second-most popular issue, the November electronics issue.
Consumer Reports named its top picks based on road and track tests, evaluations of comfort, convenience and fuel economy, crash protection ratings from the government and insurance industry and readers' reliability rankings. The magazine said it recently tested more than 200 vehicles to come up with its top picks.
Honda had the most winners, snagging top picks in five of the 10 categories. Besides the redesigned Civic, the Honda Accord was the top family sedan between $20,000 and $30,000 and the Acura TL was the top upscale sedan between $30,000 and $40,000. The Honda Odyssey was the top minivan and the Honda Ridgeline, which is Honda's first entry in the pickup market, was the top pickup.
Toyota and Subaru each had two winners, including the Subaru Forester for small SUV and the Toyota Prius for "green car." Nissan had one, the M35 luxury sedan, which the magazine called "an excellent balance of performance, comfort and handling."
Reliability rankings are based on a survey of Consumer Reports subscribers who are asked if they have had serious problems with their vehicles in the past 12 months. The survey questions readers about 17 different trouble spots. For this year's survey, readers rated their experience with 810,000 vehicles from the 1998 through 2005 model years.
Consumer Reports said Japanese and Korean brands had 12 problems per 100 vehicles, while U.S. automakers had 18 problems and European makers had 21 problems. Asian and U.S. automakers have been improving their scores but appeared to stall in 2005, the magazine said. European automakers' ratings haven't changed substantially in the last four years, the magazine said.
After Lexus, Honda and Toyota, the brands rounding out the top ten for reliability were Mitsubishi, Subaru, Acura, Scion, Mercury, Mazda and Suzuki. The ten lowest-rated brands were Audi, Infiniti, Saturn, Lincoln, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Land Rover, Hummer and Porsche.
No quibbles with the motoring experience you mentioned, but rest assured that purchase put some of your fellow citizens out of job. If you were put out of your job by the thoughtless act of another, you would see things in a different light...
Their lot was however full of early to mid-90's Honda Civics and misc. Toyotas!
I didn't want to fuss with a private sale, and I eventually found a buyer, it was a broker who shipped it to Nigeria, they paid me about half what it was apparently worth, but I was just delighted to be rid of it.
With any good fortune, one of those email scammers is now the proud owner!
No, Consumers Union does publish Consumer Reports. You may have been thinking of Consumer Guide, which is a different magazine.
No. But the total cost of ownership may be lower. My dad's 1999 Accord has been in the shop only for routine maintenance and one accident. My 1989 Civic was generally reliable, until the repairs started nickel-and-diming me to death in 2005-2006.
If I were out of school, I'd probably get a new Civic, although I must admit the Toyata RAV4 my roommate just got seems particularly attractive for Western NY winters. It gets better gas milage than my 2000 Malibu.
Not really.
A '07 Civic, reasonably equipped (A/C is a non-negotiable, and I like cruise control), goes for about $17k. A similarly equipped Corolla runs about $14k. The Saturn Ion was about $17-$18k.
The real price comes due when the ecomomy tanks because out of work and out of business citizens dont have the money to spend on whatever YOU do for a living and your get laid off or fired.
We are all in this together, except the aisian car snobs dont see past their snooty upturned noses.
Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see a resurgent GM and Ford. At the end of the day, however, "Buy American" has become irrelevant in the 2000's, since the Malibu I drive now was as likely to have been made in Canada or Mexico, while the Civic I want to get was made in Tennessee.
Furthermore, this is a capitalist system. If Ford or GM want my business, they must earn it by making quality, attractive products. If GM can make a car that I like that will not require anything other than routine maintenance for the first five years of its life, then I'll consider them. Until then, the Honda Civic made in Tennessee is a very compelling choice.
That's no less true for the Malibu in my front yard right now. There's a lot of foreign-made parts in that thing. Thus, "Buy American" is an advantage to neither Honda nor GM.
But why does GM or Ford deserve my money if Honda makes a better product, even if there weren't a single American bolt in it? I owe GM and Ford no loyalty whatsoever.
Honda To Build Transmission Plant in Georgia
As Part of $270 Million North American Powertrain Strategy
-- Investment Includes Expansion at Existing Plants in Ohio and Alabama --ATLANTA, U.S.A., November 9, 2004 - Honda today announced plans to build a US$ 100 million plant in the city of Tallapoosa, Ga., 40 miles west of Atlanta, to produce automatic transmissions as part of a broader North American Powertrain Strategy. The plan also includes significant investments to add production of high precision gears at a Honda transmission plant in Ohio, and key engine components at a Honda engine facility in Alabama. In all, Honda will invest US$ 270 million and create 600 jobs across three states.
Source
Did you know that Honda makes Saturn engines in Ohio? I think not.
GMC's mini-truck was named Sonoma in '93, though I've never heard of a Geo Sonoma. Are you confident in that model name?
No, not at all.
I meant GMC, but had also just been talking someplace else about the old GEO Metro and Prism.
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