After all the news we have been hearing about Toyota and their problems, Consumer Reports still ranks Toyota vehicles as number three. (The same ranking as last year.) The rankings are based on performance, comfort, utility and reliability of over 280 different vehicles.
“Toyota builds extremely good, reliable cars”, said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center. “I think once they get through all the recalls you will see that they are a very reliable manufacturer.” The magazine ended up dropping a couple of Toyota models from the Top Picks after the company suspended sales because of the recall. Since the vehicles were not for sale at the time, they could not make the list.
Honda (which includes Acura models) and Subaru were tied for first place, the fourth year that Honda was the leading manufacturer. They were followed by Toyota, and Hyundai (including Kia) which was ranked fourth, up from ninth last year. American manufacturers fared poorly. Ford was ranked eleventh, moving up one place from last year. General Motors and Chrysler occupied the bottom two slots, respectively.