Ford Surges in Consumer Reports' 2011 Report Card

Honda is the most reliable and well-rounded automaker, according to the consumer group, with Subaru trailing close behind. Vehicles like the Acura MDX, Honda Fit and the Subaru Legacy scored near the top of the their individual vehicle segments with above-average reliability and contributed to the automakers’ high rankings. Consumer Reports points out, however, that scores for the Honda Insight, Honda CR-Z and Subaru Impreza WRX are less than stellar; the Honda Odyssey dropped a few points since its redesign, too.

Ford was the biggest mover of the year — last year it ranked 11th out of 14 — and is now ranked fifth, ahead of Hyundai but behind Volvo. That’s mainly the result of continued improvements in reliability and road-test scores.

While General Motors saw its score improve — with significant gains in reliability, noticeably from the automaker’s large SUVs — the company still has a long way to catch up with Ford, let alone compete with top Asian automakers. Chrysler’s new models are too new to reflect any meaningful change in this report. As a result, the automaker remains the lowest-ranked manufacturer in the survey, with only the four-wheel-drive Ram 1500 being recommended by Consumer Reports.

You might notice that most of the scores are lower than last year’s scores and that Mitsubishi is missing. Consumer Reports said it has revised its methodology, now giving equal weight to reliability and driving-test scores. In previous years, driving-test scores carried more weight than reliability scores. Mitsubishi was not included this year because of insufficient data.

The only automaker that saw a real-world decrease in its score was Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes had the least reliable vehicles in three vehicle categories, and six of its 13 vehicles have below-average reliability. BMW also suffers from poor reliability, though Volkswagen has improved enough to give the brand an average reliability score for 2011.

Continue reading below to see the results of Consumer Reports’ automaker report card.

(Overall score out of a possible 100)

1.     Honda (74) 
2.     Subaru (73) 
3.     Toyota (71) 
4.     Volvo (68) 
5.     Ford (67) 
6.     Hyundai (66) 
7.     Mazda (65) 
8.     Nissan (65) 
9.     Volkswagen (63) 
10.   Mercedes-Benz (57) 
11.   BMW (57) 
12.   General Motors (56) 
13.   Chrysler (43) 

Who Makes the Best Cars? (Consumer Reports)