Consumer Reports has determined that Japanese automakers sell the most reliable vehicles in the U.S., while Americans make the least reliable ones on the market. That comes, in no small part, because pickup trucks and SUVs are among the least reliable vehicles money can buy.
The outlet determined this by gathering data on over 300,000 vehicles from the 2000 to 2023 model years and asked owners about 17 trouble areas, including engine, transmission, and in-vehicle electronics.
It found in its survey that Toyota and Lexus were the two most reliable brands in America in 2022. Moreover, Asian automakers (including Korea’s Kia) were seven of the top 10 most reliable brands, according to CR, with BMW, Audi, and Lincoln sneaking onto the list.
Read: Consumer Reports Reveals Most And Least Reliable Cars And Brands For 2021
Lincoln, it found, was the most reliable American automaker on the market thanks to the improving quality of the Nautilus and Corsair. Its larger Aviator, though, was among the least reliable vehicles on the market, along with its stablemate, the Ford Explorer.
Every single one of Lexus’ models, on the other hand, had above-average reliability, according to CR. Toyota nearly achieved the same trick, but was let down by the RAV4 Prime PHEV, which had only average reliability, and the Tundra, which ranked low on the reliability scale.
Indeed, all full-size pickup trucks had difficulties in this survey. The vehicle segment has an average predicted reliability score of 30 out of 100. That compares abysmally to minivans (44), SUVs (51) and cars (sedans, hatchbacks, and coupes), which were the most reliable category of vehicle on the road, with an average score of 58.
Pickups weren’t alone in their struggles, though. Electric vehicles did not fare well in this survey, either. The newfangled machines had an average predicted reliability of 36 with owners of the Chevrolet Bolt, the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Hyundai Kona Electric, and the VW ID.4 all reporting issues with the battery packs, the charging systems, the motors in their drive systems, and more.
Strangely, hybrid and plug-in hybrid SUVs were among the most reliable vehicles out there, with an average reliability score of 65. Vehicles like the Lexus NX Hybrid, the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and the Toyota Venza take top honors in the category.
In terms of brands to avoid, this year, the worst performing brands (from the lowest up) were Mercedes, Jeep, VW, GMC, Chevrolet, and Tesla. Meanwhile, the best brands (from the top down) were Toyota, Lexus, BMW, Mazda, and Honda.
What About The Brands Missing From The List?
Let me guess; some of you are already up in arms about the absence of certain brands, some of which have long populated the lower ends of any reliability list. We hear you, but Consumer Reports has an explanation:
“We either have insufficient data or the manufacturer has too few models for us to rank the Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Polestar, Porsche, and Rivian brands,” the outlet said.