Scion top rated for reliability
 

NYTimes Blogs |by CHERYL JENSEN on October 29, 2012
Ford has slid to the second from the last brand in the Consumer Reports 2012 Annual Auto Reliability Survey, as it continues to be dogged by problems with its new automatic transmission and the MyFord and MyLincoln Touch system.

The magazine announced the results of its analysis at the Automotive Press Association on Monday in Detroit.

Just two years ago the automaker was doing well, coming in 10th in the survey. Last year it fell to 20th. This year it comes in 27th out of 28 brands. Its luxury brand, Lincoln, was in 26th place. Jaguar was at the bottom – again.

Japanese automakers took the top seven spots. Scion was rated the highest for the second consecutive year, followed by Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Subaru, Honda and Acura.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean anything for us FR-S owners as the majority of the car, including the engine, was built by Subaru.

Do you have a link or source for this info?

You also have to consider that they rate other things besides mechanical reliability. There's not a lot of gizmos to break in a Scion compared to a Mercedes.

DIM - the source is right in the quotation. How could you have missed it? It is Consumer Reports as quoted in the New York Times Blog.

Neutral - the quotation indicates that Subaru is rated number 5, so it is also top-rated. Also, reliability is not just about build quality, but about design quality as well. In that respect, the GT86/BRZ is a child of both companies and should be of comparable quality.

Gen - In the real-world this doesn't seem to be true. There are very complex vehicles that have excellent ratings, and simple cars that do not. The Japanese makers seem to have a knack for making quality components, no matter how complex. The European makers have gotten much worse at this. While, GM is getting better and better.

While that's true, you also have to consider the demographics that purchase the vehicles. Quality expectations are different for different groups as well as expectations when it comes to a vehicles price. What may be considered a 'problem' to one person isn't necessarily a problem to another.

E.g. a 55 year old woman that has a family income >300k that purchased a 105k Audi may find it a problem that her steering wheel vibrates slightly on the freeway and her brakes squeak when it's cold. A 22 year old male making 35k a year that purchased a Honda may not. In terms of mechanical reliability, that 22 year old male also may be much harder on the vehicle as well, leading to earlier failure of mechanical parts.

My better half drives an IS250 and feels it's ABSURD that her brakes squeak slightly when she reverses. If she drove my FR-S she'd probably try and lemon law the thing with the noises it makes. My mother believes her Mazda SUV has a problem with the AC because it takes 'too long' for it to get cold and the transmission is dying at 29k miles because it takes too long to shift.

My only point is to take it with a grain of salt.

All good points. That's one of the reasons why I prefer the way that TrueDelta.com compiles data.

So Toyota has the top 3 spots, good work Toyota.

Sent from thousands of years ago into the future.