Asian brands dominate reliability list; Ford Motor is best domestic

[Miss Mia]

Asian brands dominate reliability list; Ford Motor is best domestic

DETROIT -- Most Ford Motor Co. vehicles now show average or better reliability, Consumer Reports' 2008 car reliability survey said, although Japanese carmakers still hold their lead in the study's rankings of 34 brands.

No Ford Motor brand has cracked the survey's top 10 list of predicted reliable makes, but the automaker's steady improvement in the rankings over recent years backs Ford executives' oft-stated desire to meet or exceed the quality of Asian automakers.

"Ford's three nameplates -- Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury -- lead the domestic automakers and continue to pull away from the rest of Detroit," the report said.

Ford Motor is "extremely close to Toyota and Honda in terms of reliability," said David Champion, head of the magazine's auto-testing division, at today's meeting here of the Automotive Press Association. Ford's models with below-average reliability are older, truck-based models such as the Ford F-150, Explorer and Explorer Sport Trac and the Mercury Mountaineer V-8, he said.

The survey ranked Scion, Acura, Honda and Toyota highest on its list of brands predicted to produce reliable models in 2009. The top 10 were all Asian brands.

Kia joined the top 10 with the greatest improvement in the survey, finishing 10th and gaining 12 places on the list compared with last year. Sister brand Hyundai moved up seven spots to finish eighth in the rankings.

Chrysler, Saturn and Land Rover ranked last on the 2009 predicted reliability list. The Chrysler brand showed the steepest decline in the rankings, losing 13 spots. Saturn was next, dropping 10 places.

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[Miss Mia]

Toyota quarterly sales fall for first time in 7 years

Hans Greimel
Automotive News
October 24, 2008 - 10:24 am ET

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. is feeling a big bite from the imploding U.S. auto market.

Global sales slumped 4 percent in the July-September quarter and have barely pulled into positive territory for the first nine months of the year, the company said Oct. 24.
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The three-month downturn marked the first time in seven years the Japanese carmaker's global sales have fallen on a quarterly basis. The company has booked nothing but increases in annual sales since 1999, when Toyota first combined results with Hino and Daihatsu.

Retail sales slid 4 percent to 2.236 million units in July-September, the company's fiscal second quarter. For the calendar year through September, worldwide sales edged ahead by just 2,000 vehicles to 7.051 million units. All figures include Hino and Daihatsu.

The Toyota tailspin was spurred in part by a 32.3 percent drop in U.S. sales in September. Total sales are down 10.4 percent for the year in the United States.

In an effort to staunch the bleeding, Toyota said earlier this month that it would start offer no-interest loans on 11 models in the United States. That deal runs through Nov. 3.

[Woody]

The survey ranked Scion, Acura, Honda and Toyota highest on its list of brands predicted to produce reliable models in 2009.

WTF??  Scion is Toyota, and Acura is Honda. 

[Miss Mia]

WTF??  Scion is Toyota, and Acura is Honda. 

Acura is to Honda like Audi is to Volkswagen.