According to Consumer Reports’ annual polls about most reliable car brands, Asian Automakers, like Toyota, Lexus and Mazda have surpassed the big guns like Audi, Porsche and Buick. Consumer Reports conducted the polls on its subscribers about the problems the subscribers have encountered in the last 12 months; the results covered 1.1 million cars in total from 28 brands. In a narrowed scope of view, automakers from South Korea and Japan ranked ahead of brands of western origin like Porsche and Audi.
The Top 10 rankings this year according to Consumer Reports’ annual polls are in the following order: Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Audi, Buick, Subaru, Scion, Porsche and Kia. In the light of the results of Consumer Reports’ polls, consumers were most swayed by the performance of their navigation, stereo and phone systems.
The reason attributed for the relegation of Porsche and Audi behind Lexus, Toyota and other Asian carmakers is that western carmakers focus too much on infotainment additions in their vehicles, and according to Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing on Consumer Reports:
“Infotainment system problems generally don’t exist in a vacuum. A close look at the results suggests that cars with a lot of in-car electronic issues usually have plenty of other trouble too. ”
Moreover, Consumer Reports heaped praise on Toyota and Lexus for introducing new tech features unhurriedly on models that had performed well in all other realms of car performance, leading Toyota and Lexus to be the top choice among consumers.
The biggest setback is felt by Infiniti compared to last year’s results as it couldn’t make it in the top 10 ranks at all. Infiniti’s drop from the top 10 list is owed to the poor infotainment system performance in its Q50 sedan, and poor reliability of its QX60 SUV, which caused Infiniti to fall 14 places down to the 20th place.
Although, Chrysler and Ford didn’t make it in the top 10 list, they are still applauded for making considerable improvements in their infotainment systems. Buick is the only American brand that has made it in the top 10 list, moving up from the 16th place in 2013 Consumer Reports’ annual polls to the 6th place this year. All 6 of Buick’s vehicles scored average on the performance scale, and its LaCrosse sedan received the coveted “Recommended” rating from Consumer Reports.
Our readers must be wondering about Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Well, Mercedes-Benz received the lowest ratings, placing 24th in the list, and BMW placed somewhere in the middle.
