Lexus Tops Consumer Reports Reliability Rankings

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Japanese automakers took the top three spots on the Consumer Reports Annual Auto Reliability rankings with Lexus securing the top spot on the list. They were followed by Toyota and Acura with Audi breaking Japan’s hold in fourth place.

All together, Japanese brands grabbed an impressive seven spots in the top ten. The remaining three spots went to Audi in fourth place, Volvo in seventh and GMC in ninth. Volvo made a huge 13 place jump to nab its spot in the top ten.

Only two Japanese brands failed to crack the top ten on the Consumer Reports rankings this year. Scion finished at 11th after being the number one brand last year and Nissan tumbled nine spots to finish at 22nd place.

The other end of the rankings saw Ford way down in 26th place, Lincoln in 27th and Mini placing dead last of the 28 brands included in the Consumer Reports rankings. Ford and Lincoln swapped places from last year, but that one place improvement still put Ford at 63% below the industry average.

Complaints about MyFord Touch were the biggest factor in Ford’s poor ranking, followed closely by problems with their EcoBoost engine. Ford says they’ve reduced complaints about the MyFord Touch by almost 50% since its launch, but acknowledges there is still room for improvement.

There were four other European brands in the rankings along with Audi, Volvo and Mini. Mercedes-Benz received an average ranking coming in at 13th place with Porsche and BMW following in the next two spots. Volkswagen fell two spots this year coming in at 20th place.

The two Korean brands on the list saw both of their rankings slide from last year. Kia fell six places to 16th and Hyundai slid down four spots to 21st.

Some manufacturers were not included in the ranking because Consumer Reports only includes models with at least 100 responses and brands that have at least two rated models. Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mitsubishi and Tesla were among the brands they were unable to rank. A total of 260 different models were included in this year’s rankings.

Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.