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The 2007
Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 5-to-7 Years Old, Toyota and Honda
Account for 12 of 13 Best, GM - 19 of 48 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 21
Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typical GM at 3 Years of Age?
Auto on Info July 2007
The 2007 Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 5-to-7 Years Old, Toyota and Honda Account for 13 of 13 Best, GM - 19 of 48 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 21 Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typical GM at 3 Years of Age?
By James B. Bleeker
Models by the Reliable Two account for 12 of the thirteen highest Reliability Percentranks for 2000 vehicles between the ages of five years and seven years. Of these, models by Toyota Motor Corporation account for eight - 3 Lexi and 5 Toyotas - and models by Honda Motor Company account for four - 1 Acura and 3 Hondas.
The following table lists these top thirteen models, together with their respective Reliability Percentranks.
The Best of 2000: Models with a Reliability Percentrank of .93 or More in Vehicular Age Range of 5-to-7 Years Model Reliability Percentrank Toyota's Lexus LS sedan 1.00 The 4-cylinder Toyota RAV4 small SUV .99 The Honda CR-V small SUV .99 The Toyota Avalon .98 The V6 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck .98 The 4-cylinder Honda Accord .97 Toyota's Lexus ES sedan .96 The Toyota Camry Solara .96 The Honda Civic .96 Toyota's Lexus RX midsize SUV .94 The 4-cylinder Toyota Camry .94 Honda's Acura TL sedan .94 Nissan's Infiniti QX .94 Toyota's Lexus LS, number 1 on the list, has often held a position in the annual best cars and trucks tables. See "For Vehicles 6-to-8 Years Old, Toyota Garners 7 of Top 10 Reliability Percentranks, General Motors Gathers 23 of Lowest 36," Auto on Info, August 2005, "For Vehicles 5-to-7 Years Old, Honda Garners 5 of Top 9, Toyota - 4 of Top 9, and General Motors - 19 of Bottom 38," Auto on Info, August 2005, "For Vehicles 4-to-6 Years Old, Toyota Garners 6 of Top 10, General Motors Garners 15 of Bottom 38," Auto on Info, August 2005, "For Vehicles 3-to-5 Years Old, Toyota Garners 9 of Top 14, Honda - 5 of Top 14, and General Motors - 19 of Bottom 44," Auto on Info, August 2005, "For 2-to-3-Year-Old Model Year 2002 Vehicles, Toyota Garners 6 of Top 9, General Motors - 13 of Bottom 45," Auto on Info, August 2005, "For 2-to-3-Year-Old Model-Year-2003 Vehicles, Toyota Garners 8 of Top 9 and 9 of Top 14, General Motors Accounts for 18 of Bottom 46," Auto on Info, August 2006, "Reliability Updates: For Model Year 2002, Toyota Accounts for 11 of 16 Best, GM - 16 of 53 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006, "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 3-to-5 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 13 of 15 Best, GM - 17 of 47 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006, "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 4-to-6 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 8 of 14 Best, GM - 19 of 47 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006, "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 5-to-7 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 9 of 13 Best, GM - 17 of 42 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006, "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 6-to-8 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 7 of 10 Best, GM - 17 of 36 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006, "The 2007 Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 7-to-9 Years Old, Toyota and Honda Account for 11 of 12 Best, GM - 22 of 41 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 30 Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typical GM at 3 Years of Age?" Auto on Info, July 2007, and "The 2007 Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 6-to-8 Years Old, Toyota and Honda Account for 13 of 13 Best, GM - 18 of 43 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 19 Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typical GM at 3 Years of Age?" Auto on Info, July 2007.
The following chart depicts the relative presence of the major automobile manufacturers in this quality-cars-and-trucks table.
The following table provides photographs of the 2007 editions of Toyota's eight models on the list of best, together with links to review pages. The review pages provide additional distinctions held by each model.
2007 Editions of Toyota's Eight Models in the Best-of-2000 Table Lexus LS 460 Toyota RAV4 Toyota Avalon Toyota Tacoma Lexus ES 350 Toyota Camry Solara 2007 Lexus RX 350 2007 Lexus RX 400h Toyota Camry Toyota Camry hybrid The next table provides photographs of the 2007 editions of Honda's four entries on the list of best, together with links to review pages. The review pages provide additional distinctions held by each model.
2007 Editions of Honda's Four Models in the Best-of-2000 Table Honda CR-V Honda Accord Sedan Honda Accord Hybrid Honda Civic DX, LX, and EX Sedans Honda Civic Si Sedan Honda Civic GX Honda Civic Hybrid Honda CR-V Honda Accord Sedan Honda Accord Hybrid Acura TL At the opposite end of the spectrum, GM-engineered models in General Motors Corporation's domestic lines account for 19 of the 48 worst models of 2000. Models in Ford Motor Company's domestic lines account for 7 of the 48 worst, and Chrysler Group's models account for 6 of the 48 worst. By percentage, GM's domestic-line models account for 40% of the worst of 2000, Ford's - 15%, and Chrysler's - 13%. If the European lines of GM (the Saab line), Ford (the Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover lines), and DaimlerChrysler AG (the Mercedes-Benz line) are included in the count, GM models account for 40% of the worst of 2000, Ford models - 27%, and DaimlerChrysler models - 19%, for a total of 86% of the worst of 2000, some larger than that of last year, when the vehicles were a year younger (see "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 4-to-6 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 8 of 14 Best, GM - 19 of 47 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006).
The following table helps put these percentages into perspective.
Percentage of Model Entries in the Worst Cars and Trucks Tables for Model Years 1988, 1998, 1999 and 2000, by Manufacturer 2007 Updates Manufacturer 1988 1998 1999 2000 General Motors Corporation 28.5% 53.7% 44.1% 39.6% Ford Motor Company 43.5% 9.8% 11.6% 27.1% DaimlerChrysler AG 25.0% 14.6% 23.3% 18.8% Total 97% 78.1% 79.0% 85.5% 2006 Updates Manufacturer 1988 1998 1999 2000 General Motors Corporation 28.5% 47.2% 40.5% 40.4% Ford Motor Company 43.5% 13.9% 14.3% 23.4% DaimlerChrysler AG 25.0% 16.7% 21.4% 14.9% Total 97% 77.8% 76.2% 78.7% As the updates of 2006 and 2007 do not affect the worst-cars-and-trucks table of 1988, the percentages are unchanged. The 2007 updates for model year 1998 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 7 and 9 years; the 2006 updates for model year 1998 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 6 and 8 years. The 2007 updates for model year 1999 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 6 and 8 years; the 2006 updates for model year 1999 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 5 and 7 years. The 2007 updates for model year 2000 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 5 and 7 years; the 2006 updates for model year 2000 cover the performance of vehicles between the ages of 4 and 6 years. The next table gives the individual models in the 2007 update of the worst cars and trucks table for model year 2000.
The Worst of 2000: Models with a Reliability Percentrank of .25 or Less in Vehicular Age of 5-to-7 Years Model Reliability Percentrank Chrysler Concorde .25 Chrysler's 4-wheel-drive Jeep Grand Cherokee .24 Chrysler's 4-wheel-drive Dodge Ram 1500 pickup .24 Mercedes-Benz C-Class .23 BMW 7-Series .23 Volkswagen New Beetle .23 Ford's Mercury Cougar .23 Ford's 4-wheel-drive Mercury Mountaineer .21 4-wheel-drive Ford Explorer .21 General Motors' Pontiac Bonneville .20 Chrysler's Dodge Intrepid .20 Volkswagen's V6 Audi A6 .19 Chrysler's V6 Jeep Grand Cherokee .19 Volkswagen's 4-cylinder Audi A4 .18 4-cylinder Volkswagen Jetta .18 Volvo Cross Country, XC70 .17 General Motors' Cadillac Seville .17 General Motors' non-supercharged Pontiac Grand Prix .17 General Motors' GMC Safari Van .16 General Motors' Chevrolet Astro Van .16 Chrysler's Dodge Durango SUV .16 Volkswagen's Audi TT .13 General Motors' 4-wheel-drive GMC Sonoma pickup .13 General Motors' regular Chevrolet Venture van .13 Mercedes-Benz S-Class .12 Ford Focus sedan .12 General Motors' Cadillac DeVille .12 General Motors' Oldsmobile Bravada SUV .12 General Motors' V6 Saturn L-Series .12 Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV .09 Jaguar S-Type .09 General Motors' Saturn L-Series .09 General Motors' Chevrolet Monte Carlo .09 General Motors' Pontiac Grand Am .08 Hyundai Sonata .07 General Motors' Oldsmobile Alero .07 Volvo C70 .06 Ford's Lincoln LS .05 Ford Focus .05 Jaguar XJ .04 Ford Windstar .04 Land Rover Discovery .03 General Motors' Chevrolet Blazer .03 General Motors' GMC Jimmy .02 General Motors' ext. Oldsmobile Silhouette van .01 General Motors' extended Chevrolet Venture van .01 General Motors' extended Pontiac Montana .01 Volvo S80 0.00 The following chart depicts the prevalence of the automobile manufacturers in the table of worst cars and trucks.
The next chart depicts the percentage that each line contributed to GM's worst of 2000.
The next chart depicts the rate of dilapidation of 2000 vehicles by Toyota Motor Corporation and the rates of dilapidation of the 2000 U.S. domestic vehicles by Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler Group, and General Motors Corporation, per the Reliability Score. The chart should help visualize the difference in deterioration rates for each of the four largest automobile manufacturers, by U.S. sales.
Note that the model-year-2000 regression equations of GM, Ford and Chrysler have a larger constant term than those of the regression equations for model years 1998 and 1999, pointing to improved reliability within the first couple of years or so. However, it appears that they compensated for the very short-term improvement in reliability by expediting dilapidation for subsequent years (as the more sharply downward slopes of their 2000 regression lines suggest), possibly to ensure speedy trade-ins and continued new vehicle sales.
Honda Motor Company's rate of dilapidation closely approximates that of Toyota, if the Honda Passport (a rebadged product by Isuzu Motors Ltd., a General Motors Corporation affiliate) is omitted from the computation of its 2000 Reliability Score averages.
The next chart suggests that a typical 2000 Toyota vehicle may be as troublesome to own at 21 years of age as a typical 2000 GM-engineered vehicle was at 3 years of age. The chart may help put the Toyota-GM gap in vehicular dilapidation into more practical terms.
The final set of charts provide a breakdown of the Reliability Grades of the more prominent automobile manufacturers for 2000 models at the vehicular age range 5-to-7 years. For General Motors and Ford, the grades are for only the U.S. domestic models engineered by the respective corporation.
From the charts, it may be easily seen that General Motors' models have more F's than Ford's and Chrysler's combined.
Source for 2000 Reliability Percentranks for 5-to-7-year-old vehicles: The Best and Worst of 2000
