SHOPSMART AUTOS – CONSUMER INFORMATION – MAY 31, 2021
Luxury doesn’t always mean reliable. That’s the lesson from Consumer Reports’ latest brand rankings. Mazda, one of the smaller mainstream brands, topped the organization’s latest measure of auto brands that excel in quality, safety and reliability. Mainstream brands accounted for six of the top 10 nameplates in the Consumer Reports’ rankings. Luxury brands including Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover and Alfa Romeo all landed toward the back or end of the pack. The organization ranked 32 brands for its annual cars report. “It really shows you don’t have to spend a whole lot of money to get a desirable vehicle that’s reliable and has all of the technology and safety that you want,” said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ senior director of automotive testing. Subaru, ranked No. 3, Honda, 5, Toyota, 7, Chrysler, 8, and Buick, 9, all prove that point and present good choices for shoppers looking for different vehicle characteristics, Fisher said. “If someone cares most about safety and reliability, the answer is Toyota. If you want that, but also something more fun to drive, there is Mazda. Subaru is practical, reliable and offers all-wheel-drive on every model,” Fisher said. BMW X3: BMW and Porsche finished second and fourth in Consumer Reports’ 2021 rankings. Most German car companies fell below average. BMWFeatures, Tech Fell Some Premium Brands
Many expensive luxury brands are running into trouble packing vehicles with newly designed equipment, technology and features. New technology is prone to bugs, Fisher said. Still, BMW and Porsche finished second and fourth. While two domestic brands—Chrysler and Buick—cracked the top 10 list, most of the other American brands didn’t fare as well. Cadillac was 22, Chevrolet, 24, Ford, 25, GMC, 26, Lincoln, 28, and Jeep, 29. Fisher attributes much of their reliability problems to the same syndrome that plagues many luxury automakers. These brands have unveiled a flurry of redesigned models in recent years that have kinks that they still need to iron out. “These extensive redesigns where you have new platforms and new powertrains, those are the things that reliability issues are often associated with,” Fisher said. By comparison, Chrysler and Buick have older models where engineers have gradually eliminated the design flaws, he said.
Tesla Ranks 15th of 32. Fans Still Love Tesla
Tesla ranked in the middle at No. 15 (tied with Genesis and Mini). Reliability issues with the Model S, Model Y, and Model X hurt the electric vehicle maker. Tesla’s fourth vehicle, the Model 3, is its biggest seller. But Consumer Reports noted that the brand enjoys “remarkably high scores for owner satisfaction and in CR’s road tests.” A bevy of new models also hurt the reliability of vehicles coming out of South Korea, with sibling brands Hyundai, Kia and Genesis all sliding in the rankings. Hyundai is launching a series of newly designed rear-wheel-drive vehicles in its Genesis luxury brand, emulating the European brands Genesis is targeting, instead of employing the front-wheel-drive platforms it uses for the Hyundai and Kia brands. “These are going to be the vehicles that perform very well driving, but it’s going to take a few years to get the kind of reliability that will put them into the upper tier of product rankings,” Fisher said.
European Brands Mostly Below Average
European brands—including the luxury nameplates—mostly came in worse than average. Italian automaker Alfa Romeo captured last place. German automaker Volkswagen was 18. Many of these brands score poorly year after year, Fisher said. But consumers still buy them because they offer excellent driving dynamics, a plush interior, lots of technology, make an image statement or provide some other characteristic that shoppers seek, Fisher said. Reliability is not the sole decider in vehicle purchases, he said. But that creates problems for brands like Fiat, which has models that score poorly in driving dynamics and reliability, leaving almost no reason why a consumer would shop the brand, Fisher said. Fiat wasn’t ranked in this year’s report, but its Fiat 500X garnered one of the worst overall scores of any vehicle tested. The brand sold barely 4,000 vehicles in the U.S. last year, less than half the number it sold in 2019, according to Motor Intelligence.
Common Findings by Consumer Reports, J.D. Power
The Consumer Reports finding mirrored a study of long term dependability from automotive market research firm J.D. Power. That Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) of reliability of vehicles from the 2018 model year found that owners of Asian brand vehicles experienced on average 115 problems per 100 vehicles, the fewest of any grouping. That compared to 126 problems for domestic brands and 131 for European brands. The industry average was 121, according to J.D. Power.
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