The Early 2010 Reliability Grade Point Averages and Grades for Manufacturers of Automobiles
by James Bleeker

Photograph of a 2006 Toyota Prius on 18 September 2010

The Toyota Prius has a 2010 Auto Reliability GPA of a perfect 4.00 over its 9-year data history and has helped Toyota Motor Corporation place second among all automobile manufacturers in the Early 2010 Auto Reliability Grade Point Averages. See the table below.

The following table provides the reliability Grade Point Averages (GPAs) for each of the automobile manufacturers with significant sales in North America. Each manufacturer's GPA is an average, unweighted by sales, of those of its motor vehicle products that appear in the tables of the Consumer Union's Consumer Reports: New Car Buying Guide: 2010 and the April 2010 issue of the Consumer Reports magazine. The Average GPA for each car company is the average of the Average GPAs of its products. The Average Minimum GPA for each manufacturer is the average of the Minimum GPAs of its models. The Reliable Two, Toyota Motor Corporation and Honda Motor Company, appear first in the table, because of their rather singular stature; the remaining manufacturers are listed alphabetically.

Letter grades are determined thusly: A if the GPA is 3.50 to 4.00, B if the GPA is 2.50 to 3.49, C if the GPA is 1.50 to 2.49, D if the GPA is 0.50 to 1.49, and F if the GPA < 0.50.

GPAs for 4 age ranges are given so that the visitor may examine more thoroughly the one that is of greater interest to him/her, if such there be.

To arrange any column in ascending order (smallest value on top), click the header of the column. To rearrange any column in descending order (largest value on top), click the header one more time.

The Early 2010 Reliability Grade Point Averages for Manufacturers of Motor Vehicles for Four 4-Year Age Ranges   ID Auto Manufacturer Manufacturer GPA for 0-to-4 Year Old Vehicles Manufacturer GPA for 2-to-6 Year Old Vehicles Manufacturer GPA for 4-to-8 Year Old Vehicles Manufacturer GPA for 6-to-10 Year Old Vehicles Average GPA Grade Based on Average Average Minimum GPA Grade Based on Average Minimum Average Number of Model Years of Data 42 Toyota 3.33 3.48 3.74 3.72 3.48 B 3.23 B 6.21 64 Honda 3.47 3.58 3.54 3.49 3.55 A 3.28 B 6.89 79 BMW 1.36 1.75 2.03 1.60 1.51 C 1.19 D 5.25 110 Chrysler 0.94 0.92 1.09 1.18 1.02 D 0.72 D 5.19 125 Daimler 1.57 1.38 1.85 2.29 1.60 C 1.41 D 4.67 170 Ford 2.21 2.16 2.02 1.95 2.15 C 1.88 C 5.65 227 General Motors 1.30 1.26 1.54 1.91 1.41 D 1.09 D 5.48 238 Hyundai 2.78 2.43 2.58 2.10 2.54 B 2.22 C 5.78 243 Jaguar 0.00 1.00 1.00 2.00 1.33 D 1.33 D 1.67 251 Kia 2.39 1.96 1.13 0.50 1.93 C 1.44 D 4.50 256 Land Rover 0.33 0.25 0.00   0.17 F 0.00 F 1.33 268 Mazda 2.39 2.26 2.58 3.14 2.28 C 2.02 C 5.20 275 Mitsubishi 3.00 2.88 2.67 2.31 2.73 B 2.40 C 4.00 299 Nissan 2.43 2.32 2.08 2.45 2.39 C 2.15 C 5.86 305 Porsche 2.58 2.38 1.67 2.38 2.39 C 2.13 C 5.75 314 Subaru 2.90 2.87 2.46 2.12 2.61 B 2.06 C 7.71 318 Suzuki 2.50 2.50     2.50 B 2.50 B 1.50 338 Volkswagen 1.85 1.28 0.80 1.01 1.47 D 0.96 D 4.88

Notice that (1) Toyota and Honda products dominate the upper end of the reliability spectrum in the outer years, as well as for younger vehicles, (2) Honda took the top spot from Toyota in 2010, an infrequent but occasional occurrence, and (3) Hyundai has leaped past Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

The Reliability GPAs of both General Motors and Chrysler suggest that one or two additional bankruptcy reorganizations may be in the offing for one or both. However, this largely depends on the rate of information dissemination and the speed with which people act on the information gathered. More likely than not, GM and Chrysler will be able to limit market share loss to one percentage point or less per year. At this rate, both should be able to comfortably downsize without causing economic disturbance in the U.S. or abroad.

A PDF version of this page is available for downloading and/or printing. With it saved, you may glean any changes that may occur over the next decade, and you may give posterity an opportunity to glean changes, if any there be, over the next 50 or 100 years.

The method of computation of the GPAs is probably familiar to nearly every college, technical school, and high school student. A Grade Point of 4.00 (that is, an A) is given to a Consumer Reports "Much Better Than Average" rating, 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 Grade Point Average (GPA) is an average of the Grade Points and is computed using Microsoft's Average(a:b,[c:d],...) function.

The table is an immediate import from Microsoft's Access and a more distant import from Microsoft's Excel. The integration of the Access database into Microsoft's Web Expression software makes the reordering of the columns a rather simple task. For Ajax's partial post back, the ScriptManager and UpdatePanel controls were inserted by dragging; <ContentTemplate> was manually inserted into the code immediately after the ScriptManager and Update controls.

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