Consumer Reports pulled its recommendation for three of Toyota’s cars, including the popular Camry sedan, due to poor crash test results. Although Lexus, Toyota and Acura were ranked as the U.S. auto industry’s most reliable brands in Consumer Reports’ annual new-car reliability survey, the magazine withdrew its recommendation for the Camry, Prius v and RAV4 because they received poor ratings in the latest IIHS crash tests.
“Honestly, we don’t take this lightly, but virtually every vehicle now in the family sedan category has been tested and the only one that has gotten a ‘poor’ is the Camry,” said Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “At this point, we don’t feel we can continue to recommend people buy a Camry when there’s other good choices out there that do better on the test,” he added.
Last year, the IIHS included crashes that involve only a front corner of a vehicle in its tests. Consumer Reports waited to see how the entire industry was affected by the test before adjusting its buyer recommendations. Traditionally, the magazine does not recommend consumers to buy a car that gets poor crash test results.
The Camry was the third best-selling vehicle in the U.S. through September, behind two full-size pickup trucks. Sales were up 1.3 percent from the same period last year to 318,990 cars.
Toyota says it has made changes to the Camry to improve its performance in the crash tests and IIHS is planning to retest the car in December.
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References: Consumer Reports via Reuters
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