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2012 Auto, Brand, and Manufacturer Reliability GPAs and Grades

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2012's Reliability GPAs and Grades for Cars and Trucks Sold in North America: Summary and Menu
by James Bleeker

Pages in this section of AutoOnInfo.net provide tables and charts on auto reliability in 2012. All tables offer Reliability GPAs for 4 age ranges, an Overall Reliability GPA and corresponding Reliability Grade, and a Minimum GPA and corresponding Grade. Pages offering a table have a chart that depicts some or all of the Overall GPAs given within the table and one or more charts that depict manufacturer shares of the best or worst. Three pages have charts only.

The 2012 Full Spectrum Tables of Reliability GPAs

Cars and Trucks
Car and Truck Brands
Car and Truck Manufacturers

The 2012 Tables of Best Cars and Trucks

2012's Best Cars and Trucks
2012's Best Small Cars
2012's Best Hatchbacks
2012's Best Family Cars
2012's Best 4-Cylinder Family Cars
2012's Best Hybrids
2012's Best Wagons
2012's Best Upscale Cars
2012's Best Luxury Cars
2012's Best Sport Cars
2012's Best SUVs
2012's Best Small SUVs
2012's Best Midsize SUVs
2012's Best Large SUVs
2012's Best Minivans
2012's Best All-Wheel-Drive and 4-Wheel-Drive Cars and Trucks
2012's Best Pickups

The 2012 Tables of Worst Cars and Trucks

2012's Worst Cars and Trucks
2012's Worst Small Cars
2012's Worst Hatchbacks
2012's Worst Family Cars
2012's Worst 4-Cylinder Family Cars
2012's Worst Hybrids
2012's Worst Wagons
2012's Worst Upscale Cars
2012's Worst Luxury Cars
2012's Worst Sport Cars
2012's Worst SUVs
2012's Worst Small SUVs
2012's Worst Midsize SUVs
2012's Worst Large SUVs
2012's Worst Minivans
2012's Worst All-Wheel-Drive and 4-Wheel-Drive Cars and Trucks
2012's Worst Pickups

The 2012 Charts

Charts of Best and Worst Cars and Trucks
Charts of Auto Maker Shares of the Best
Charts of Auto Maker Shares of the Worst

The 2012 Chart of Auto Manufacturer GPAs

Below is the chart depicting each auto manufacturer's 2012 Overall Reliability GPAs

Bar graph depicting the 2012 Overall Reliability GPAs of Auto Manufacturers with Sales in North America.

Note the very sizable drop in GPA from Toyota Motor Corporation to Suzuki Motor Corporation.

The Auto Reliability GPAs are automobile reliability statistics that are obtained from Consumer Reports' auto reliability survey data summarized in the reliability tables of (1) Consumer Reports: New Car Buying Guide: 2012, (2) Consumer Reports: Used Car Buying Guide: 2012, and (3) the April 2012 issue of the Consumer Reports magazine.

The method of computation of the GPAs is probably familiar to nearly every college, technical school, and high school student. For each model year, a Grade Point of 4.00 (that is, an A) is given to a Consumer Reports Used Car Verdict of "Much Better Than Average," a GP of 3.00 (that is, a B) is given to a CR "Better Than Average" rating, a GP of 2.00 (that is, a C) to an "Average" rating, a GP of 1.00 (that is, a D) to a "Worse Than Average" rating, and a GP of 0.00 (that is, an F) to a "Much Worse Than Average" rating. A 4-year Grade Point Average (GPA) is an average of the Grade Points and is computed using Microsoft's Average(a:b,[c:d],...) function. The Overall GPA of a model is the average of the four 4-year GPAs. The GPAs of brands and manufacturers are the averages of the model GPAs.

AutoOnInfo.net: Helping to inform consumers which autos, brands, and manufacturers are better than good and worse than bad since 2001.

Additional Resources

More detail on brand Quality Grades is given in the Kindle ebook entitled AutoOnInfo.net's Car Quality Series, Volume 2: Brand Quality for Model Years 1985 to 2006 and Brand Market Shares from 1985 to 2009. Links to the Amazon page offering the book are given below.

Icon for AutoOnInfo.net’s Car Quality Series Volume 2: Brand Quality for Model Years 1985 to 2006 and Effect on Brand Market Shares from 1985 to 2009

AutoOnInfo.net's Car Quality Series, Volume 2: Brand Quality for Model Years 1985 to 2006 and Effect on Brand Market Shares from 1985 to 2009

This volume of AutoOnInfo.net’s car guide series offers consumers and researchers an historical summary of the reliability and durability of car and truck brands and examines how these brands have fared in their U.S. market shares. It uses 6-year-old model entries in Consumer Reports’ Used Car to Avoid – also termed Vehicles to Avoid and Worst Cars, Year by Year – and CR’s reliability charts to ascribe quality grades to automobile brands for model-year groups 1985 to 1989, 1990 to 1994, 1995 to 1999, 2000 to 2004, 2005 to 2006, and 1985 to 2006. In addition to ascribing quality grades to each brand, it provides a chart that plots the number of the brand’s 6-year-old model entries in CR’s vehicles to avoid. To examine the effect that a brand’s reliability and durability has had on sales, two or more charts depicting the brand’s U.S. market shares for calendar years 1985 to 2009 are given. These grades and charts and the author’s comments impart an historical perspective that sheds light on the present condition of surviving vehicle lines and their future prospects, individual and institutional shortcomings, and what effect these may have on the U.S.

Also visit www.CarsOnInfo.net and www.CarQualityInfo.net for more car and truck quality tables, charts, graphs, and information.