Consumer reports 5 worst car brands.

[Vercingetorix]

I must admit I pretty much don’t give a hoot how Consumer Reports ranks brands, but with the exception of Rivian I think they are pretty close. I have no knowledge of Rivian. All American except for Land Rover. Stelantis with Jeep and Dodge gets a double whammy.
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/worst-scoring-car-brands-consumer-reports

 

[rszappa1]

I must admit I pretty much don’t give a hoot how Consumer Reports ranks brands, but with the exception of Rivian I think they are pretty close. I have no knowledge of Rivian. All American except for Land Rover. Stelantis with Jeep and Dodge gets a double whammy.
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/worst-scoring-car-brands-consumer-reports

sounds about right...

 

[D1dad]

I expected to see my beloved Nissans on there.

 

[jayjr1105]

Never heard of Stelantis before, thought it was FCA (Fiat/Chrysler Auto)

 

[JoelB]

Why would GMC be worse than Chevrolet? Interesting dynamic there. Apparently some of the Chevy vehicle not rebranded as GMC are more reliable? Taken with a grain of salt of course since i don't know all the factors CR uses.

 

[AZjeff]

And we have a 2021 GMC Sierra HD built in the first quarter of '21 so it's a Covid truck and it had one minor warranty thing early on now with 40k miles, 30k of it towing. Piece of junk GMC covid truck.

And with the old Jeep I'm a double loser.

 

[skyactiv]

How many Toyota owners put zero blame on the automaker on these polls because “it’s not Toyotas fault, it was a supplier problem “.

 

[IndyIan]

Kind of pointless to know which brand is best or worst, unless you are buying a newly designed model with no reliability history. Then looking back on what the company has tended to do with new models is relevant.

I'm looking at used Subaru's and I think the newer Subaru's (improved/perceived?) reliability is raising the prices of the older cars above where they should be IMO. A 10-12 yr old subaru is not a 10-12 yr old Corolla, but it appears there are enough folks who think so, to keep similar residual percentage values...

 

[Vil_Riker]

I must admit I pretty much don’t give a hoot how Consumer Reports ranks brands, but with the exception of Rivian I think they are pretty close. I have no knowledge of Rivian. All American except for Land Rover. Stelantis with Jeep and Dodge gets a double whammy.
https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/worst-scoring-car-brands-consumer-reports

What a horrible website.

 

[SC Maintenance]

My two most reliable vehicles, my Xterra and my 1996 Olds Cutlass Supreme were both rated extremely poorly by CR.

Its like Jim Cramer recommending a stock I think.

 

[JeffKeryk]

What? No Tesla? What's wrong with these guys? Sheesh!

 

[Nessism1]

People senselessly bash CR, but all the data they report about things like reliability are based on customer surveys. I just completed my yearly survey.

 

[JeffKeryk]

People senselessly bash CR, but all the data they report about things like reliability are based on customer surveys. I just completed my yearly survey.

The problem is, CR subscribers are a captured group; that's a highly unscientific survey group.
And they lump so many things into one group, particularly "reliability". Without clear definitions, reliability is rendered meaningless.

 

[Nessism1]

The problem is, CR subscribers are a captured group; that's a highly unscientific survey group.
And they lump so many things into one group, particularly "reliability". Without clear definitions, reliability is rendered meaningless.

Maybe in the overall report, but CR publishes "problems area" reports, where you can see what specific part of the vehicle is problematic. A small bit of analysis shows if the AC or the engine is causing problems. Details matter.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Maybe in the overall report, but CR publishes "problems area" reports, where you can see what specific part of the vehicle is problematic. A small bit of analysis shows if the AC or the engine is causing problems. Details matter.

I highly agree details matter. My point exactly. CR does not offer details; quite the opposite. Small sample size with a captured group.

 

[MCompact]

My two most reliable vehicles, my Xterra and my 1996 Olds Cutlass Supreme were both rated extremely poorly by CR.

Its like Jim Cramer recommending a stock I think.

Ditto for my 1999 Jeep TJ and 2021 Jeep JLU.

 

[AZjeff]

I highly agree details matter. My point exactly. CR does not offer details; quite the opposite. Small sample size with a captured group.

The small sample size I get but are you saying the CR subscriber group doesn't represent a true cross section of owners so results aren't valid? CR publishes a yearly auto issue with reliability data by year model and specific category IE AC, trans, suspension etc. I recall it calling out certain years of Mazda5 cars for rear wheel bearing failure. Not detailed enough?. When we subscribed years ago I'd study it for hours. Maybe it's different now but we don't subscribe so I don't see it.

 

[BHopkins]

Why would GMC be worse than Chevrolet? Interesting dynamic there. Apparently some of the Chevy vehicle not rebranded as GMC are more reliable? Taken with a grain of salt of course since i don't know all the factors CR uses.

I also found that very curious. Perhaps GMC owners expect more from their trucks, and are more likely to report something as a defect, where a Chevrolet owner may accept that same defect as just one of those things, and not report it? Just speculating, but it seems plausible.

I've always suspected that is one of the major problems with reliability data that is based upon surveys. The data can easily be skewed by what is reported. CR does a pretty good job of trying to word their survey questions in such a way to avoid bias of the surveyed. But there are no guarantees.

The problem is, CR subscribers are a captured group; that's a highly unscientific survey group.
And they lump so many things into one group, particularly "reliability". Without clear definitions, reliability is rendered meaningless.

Yes, it is not a random sampling for the survey group. But it is a very, very large group, and this tends to correct for the fact that it is made up only of CR subscribers, and only those CR members that voluntarily complete their surveys.

CR is pretty good about not including data, where they don't feel the sample size is large enough to be statistically sound.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The small sample size I get but are you saying the CR subscriber group doesn't represent a true cross section of owners so results aren't valid? CR publishes a yearly auto issue with reliability data by year model and specific category IE AC, trans, suspension etc. I recall it calling out certain years of Mazda5 cars for rear wheel bearing failure. Not detailed enough?. When we subscribed years ago I'd study it for hours. Maybe it's different now but we don't subscribe so I don't see it.

The sample is completely self selecting - not random.

People either believe CR religiously or they do not. So if they have read CR for 2 decades there going to buy a Honda. Because thats what CR has said for 2 decades. And of course they then over-look all the Honda problems - just like many on this board. They burn oil and dilute and still have timing belts and so on. These shortcomings get a pass.

Not to mention that people reading CR are generally non technical, so they don't really know the difference between my tier supply sourced alternator left me stranded vs my car burns a quart every 1000 miles but I never had to call the tow truck so its OK.

Not saying its completely bunk, but its definately not unbiased either.

 

[PF52]

People either believe CR religiously or they do not. So if they have read CR for 2 decades there going to buy a Honda. Because thats what CR has said for 2 decades. And of course they then over-look all the Honda problems - just like many on this board. They burn oil and dilute and still have timing belts and so on. These shortcomings get a pass.

Yes, exactly.