Consumer Reports has released their annual “Best Cars” issue. Their definition of “best” involves a combination of their self-conducted road tests, safety ratings, owner satisfaction surveys, and owner reliability surveys. However, I’m mostly just concerned about their reliability ratings. I like to track the ones moving up and the ones moving down. I do believe it says something broad about the current state of each manufacturer.
Subaru uses a lot of the same parts across all of its vehicles, which means fewer new designs and thus higher reliability. They are also now a more mature company, after a period of very fast growth. Their all-wheel drive has basically stayed the same for years and years, and it’s on every vehicle so they have it down. Toyota/Lexus has a long history of opting for small, incremental changes rather than complete redesigns. This makes them more boring, but boring tends to be reliable.
Still, Consumer Reports recommends that you shop by specific vehicle model and not just by brand make. In general, new models have more problems than those that are 2-3 years old.
Hybrids are surprisingly now nearly as reliable as traditional ICE cars despite their add complexity, while plug-in hybrids have 70% more problems overall than ICE vehicles (down from 146% more last year). Pure electrics have 42% more problems than ICE vehicles (down from 79% more last year). My assumption is that this is again because hybrids have been around longer and the engineers have had a chance to solve the problems that arose. I’m still quite happy with my old Toyota minivan, although I have been watching reviews of the new Volkswagen ID Buzz. Maybe after a few more years…
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Granted, it’s a small sample size, but I currently drive a Chevy Camaro and Buick Envision. Both have over 125,000 miles (and the Camaro is 14 years old). I haven’t had any issues with either.
I had a 2001 Pontiac that I drove for around 10 years as well without no major issues either. The fit and finish wasn’t that great (big gaps and lots of hard plastic, the brake lights leaked water inside), but it ran just fine and the brake lights still worked too.
What are those units? Subaru is 68 whats?
When you’re looking at Hybrids (not plug in Hybrids)…NOTHING compares to the long term experience that Toyota has when it comes to engineering Hybrid engines. Frankly, I believe Toyota probably makes the rest of the hybrid vehicles look good even though many other car brands have issues with their Hybrids, including Honda.
Bottom Line, Toyota is the leader in Hybrid Technology and has 20+ years experience (think back to those ugly Prius’s from years ago.
Currently driving a Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Limited – 7 passenger, 3 row SUV and I’m getting 32 MPG. Plenty of power and comfortable ride – this is the “GRAND” Highlander – not the regular smaller Highlander. I was going to get an Acura MDX but with its regular gas engine it only gets 18-20 MPG…and the technology inside is old and dated (think finger pointing mousepad).