New Car Reliability | Best & Worst Reliability

Ford continues to fall, while seven Japanese brands tops our list

Published: October 2012

Only two years ago, Ford was Detroit’s poster child for reliability. It cracked the top 10 among brands in our predicted--reliability scores, with more than 90 percent of its models being average or better. Since then, a perfect storm of reliability problems has dropped Ford to next to last among the 28 brands in our survey. And Lincoln, Ford’s luxury brand, placed just a notch higher.

Toyota, on the other hand, excelled in our latest ratings. Its three brands—Scion, Toyota, and Lexus—swept the top spots. They were followed by four other Japanese makes: Mazda, Subaru, Honda, and Acura. All of the models produced by the top seven brands had average or better reliability. And of the 90 Japanese models reflected in our brand comparison, 86 were average or better, with 35 earning the highest rating.

Those findings from our 2012 Annual Auto Survey are based on subscribers’ experiences with 1.2 million vehicles. We use that extensive data to predict how well new cars that are currently on sale will hold up.

Several factors contributed to Ford’s decline. A few new or redesigned models, including the Explorer, Fiesta, and Focus, came out of the gate with more problems than normal. Ford has also added the MyFord/MyLincoln Touch electronic infotainment system, which has been problematic so far, to many vehicles. In addition, three historically reliable models—the Ford Escape and Fusion and the Lincoln MKZ—are not included in the analysis. They were redesigned for 2013, and we don’t know how the new versions will fare.