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If you’re up for another exciting round of the Japanese cars vs. American cars debate, here’s some news that would tip the scales in favor of the Asians: in a 2012 Car Reliability Survey conducted by brands and market authority Consumer Reports, Japanese brands—the Toyota group in particular—get the thumbs up, while Ford shamefully sits second from the bottom of the rank. The top three brands that topped the survey are all under Toyota Motors Corporation: Scion, Toyota, and Lexus. The Toyota Prius C earned the top reliability rating among the entire vehicle lineup included in the survey. What happened to Ford? Three years ago it was being hailed as the poster brand for American car reliability, with ninety percent of its models having an average or better score in the reliability survey. Nowadays the stats are down: sixty percent of its models are below average when it comes to reliability. Not good. The analysts over at Consumer Reports attribute this decline to the failure of the new or redesigned Ford models to live up to the reliability standard, coming out with more problems than normal. One particular feature was pinpointed: the MyFord Touch electronic infotainment and communications system that users have reported to be more of a pain than an informative entertainment console. This dissatisfaction created an impact on reliability across the Ford range, pulling the company down the ranking. If Japan is represented by Toyota and the United States by Ford, you know which country wins in the reliability segment. Here’s more fodder for the Japanese cars vs American cars debate: the top seven spots in the reliability survey were all taken by Japanese brands. The top three as mentioned earlier are Scion, Toyota, and Lexus; these are followed by Mazda, Subaru, Honda, and Acura. The last three spots are taken by Audi. Infiniti, and Kia. In the list of the worst in reliability, Jaguar is found to be the least reliable, followed by Ford, Lincoln, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Mini, Buick, Volvo, and Jeep. As you can see, there are no Japanese brands anywhere on that list. The auto survey findings are based on the experiences of the website’s subscribers with 1.2 million vehicles. The data are analyzed to predict how well cars will perform in the market. This annual reliability survey is one of the motoring world’s most-trusted guides when it comes to brand judgment because of the magazine’s independence. Aside from reliability, Consumer Reports also conducts studies and rankings on vehicles’ on safety and road test performance. Japanese cars vs. American cars: the verdict The Japanese brands win this round hands down. It may seem that in its effort to provide advanced features in its vehicles, Ford mistook high technology for convenience. Their new infotainment and communications system is difficult and complicated for users to even operate, and if you’re a buyer you certainly wouldn’t want it installed in the first place. However, it’s there and included in the car, and many owners no doubt sees this as an added, unnecessary expense. On the other hand, Toyota listens to its consumers in its product development, a big help when you are designing a car for people who want convenience and practicality. Got a point to say in the Japanese cars vs. American cars debate? Join in the discussion!
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