Consumer Reports' top five reliable family cars list includes two hybrids, Prius at #1
Two of the five most reliable family cars in the U.S. are hybrids, according to the readers surveyed by Consumer Reports in the non-profit magazine's latest reliability survey. At the number one spot we find the Toyota Prius, and coming in at number 4 is the Toyota Camry Hybrid (note: in the CBC article that mentions this list, the Camry entry includes an asterisk that is then not identified anywhere on the page, so go figure). The other cars in the top five are Honda Accord (#2), Hyundai Sonata, 4-cyl. (#3), and Ford Fusion (#5).
Consumer Reports says that, overall, Ford has gotten better with its vehicle reliability recently, while Toyota has slipped. Toyota still dominated the ratings, though, with 17 of the top 39 most-reliable vehicles. CR's four least reliable vehicles are listed after the jump.
[Source: CBC News via Green Car Congress]
Consumer Reports least reliable family cars
- Chevrolet Impala V8
- Volkswagen Passat
- Pontiac G6
- Volvo S40/V50
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 5:13PM (10/19/2007)
My grandfather has a Passat.
It's about three years old, and just a few months ago it broke down. He went to VW to have it fixed. It still wasn't working, so he went again. Now, I'm not 100% sure (only 95% sure) if he went again, but after all of it, it took a month or more to have it fixed, and now the car goes through motor oil like it was candy.
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Sassan 6:42PM (10/18/2007)
On the CR website the '*' is explained to mean this car is in its first year of production and there is no history associated with the ratings.
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Ian 6:55PM (10/22/2007)
Our family does pretty well with two honda Civic Hybrids.
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Rick 4:14PM (10/19/2007)
The new Prius is like 2 years old (maybe 3) so how can they access reliability yet? To me, reliable means after that warrnty runs out the car doesn't fall apart. I think we need to rate cars at least 4 years of age to see if they are reliable. Especially Hybrids and how those engines and electrical systems hold up after a few years.
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Chris M 10:57PM (10/22/2007)
The newest version of the Prius was introduced late in 2003 as a 2004 model, so it has been around about 4 years now. That is long enough to start getting some reliability data.
Reliability of older versions of the same model may give some indication to how reliable a newer model might be, although such estimations are not always accurate.
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Jennifer 3:38PM (10/24/2007)
As to whoever said the Pruis has only been out for 2 maybe 3 years...uhh it's been out since 2001! They are a exceptional vehicle. Lots of room and great gas mileage. Also, great resale value. My parents needed to trade their Prius in for a Tundra and they go more than what they owed on it! And now they want it back. But they loved it!
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Phil L. 4:54PM (10/24/2007)
Jennifer -
The current Prius design (NHW20) has only been out since MY2004. Reliability factors should be similar as the overall design changes, but that isn't a given. The current generation was a significant redesign, including a move from the early Toyota Hybrid System (THS) to the new Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) approach.
In general, it seems that the 1st gen Prius in the US (which was overly similar to the not-as-well-received Echo) aren't a popular on the resale market as the current generation.
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