Cars and Drivers
Ford and GM Lose to Japanese Rivals in Car Quality Survey
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Key Points
- In the latest Consumer Reports car quality ranking, Japanese brands took the top six places and U.S. car companies did poorly.
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The Consumer Reports Automotive Report Card is among the most carefully watched surveys of auto reliability in the US. The 2025 edition was just released. In the “2025 Most Reliable New Car Brands” section, Japanese companies took the top six spots, while the General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) brands were not among the top 10.
The Consumer Reports report is extremely comprehensive. It examines 300,000 new vehicles from 2020 to 2024 and covers 200 models and 20 “problem areas’. The primary measurements are 1) new car reliability, 2) used car reliability, 3) owner satisfaction, 4) road test scores, and 5) maintenance and repair costs. It also looks at seating, powertrains, and whether owners would “recommend” the models.
Subaru took the top sport, followed by Lexus (owned by Toyota), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE TM), Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC), Acura (owned by Honda), and Mazda. Out of 22 brands, Buick (owned by GM) finished 11th, Ford finished 13th, Chevrolet (owned by GM) finished 17th, Jeep (owned by Stellantis) finished 19th, GMC (owned by GM) finished 20th, and Cadillac (owned by GM) finished 21st.
The rankings are important for both U.S. companies. There has long been an impression that U.S. companies lag the Japanese in quality. This is particularly bad news for Ford, which had hundreds of millions of dollars of warranty costs in its two most recent quarterly earnings announcements. The Consumer Research data shows that the trend may not be over.
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