The Strategist

Consumer Reports: Japanese and American car brands are the safest



10/25/2016 - 14:40



Buick became the first American manufacturer, which came in the top 3 American magazine Consumer Reports on Monday released a new car safety rating. Having analyzed more than half a million cars, the editors have once again recognized Lexus and Toyota the most reliable car brands. Many, however, were surprised that GM's Buick occupied the third place. This success automatically made the carmaker the first American car managed to get into the ranking’s top in 35 years. rankings



Paul David
Paul David
This is the first success of the US automotive industry for all 35 years of publication. The first ever ranking was composed in 2001, but the editorial board has reviewed the previous 20 years. The top three was followed by German Audi and South Korean KIA. "Of course, Toyota and Lexus know what they do, but look at the top five: we've got America, Germany and South Korea, - Jake Fisher of Consumer Reports commented on results of this year. - GM now makes very good cars, and Buick - very reliable."

The new car safety rating is dominated by Asian auto industry. Apart from Lexus, Toyota and KIA, the top ten also includes Mazda brand, Hyundai and Infiniti, ranked 6th to 8th, respectively. Another Asian, Honda, closes the top ten. The magazine paid particular attention to semi-autonomous vehicles, equipped with a function of unmanned driving. According to the authors, manufacturers should more clearly explain to customers what their cars can do on their own, and what – can’t.

At the end of this year, Tesla has been named as one of the most unreliable car brands. Last year, the magazine's editors did not recommend to buy Tesla S, yet now the car was given this status. However, numerous problems with Tesla X prevented the carmaker from getting enough points for reliability. As a result, the company hit just the 25th out of 29 possible. SUVs of RAM American concern Chrysler have been recognized the worst.

Sales of motor cars (including LCV) in the US for the first 9 months of 2016 amounted to 13 104 thousand units, which is 0.4% more than in the same period last year.

The leader is Ford, which for the period sold 1 896.9 thousand cars. The figure corresponds to the result a year earlier (+ 0.3%). Thus, local brands sold each seventh car in America. The second place is occupied by Japanese Toyota (1 532.8 thousand cars; -3%).

The first three also features American Chevrolet (1531,9 thousand cars; -3.9%). The top five is completed by Japanese brands Honda (1 108.7 thousand; + 4.9%) and Nissan (1 086.2 thousand; + 5.8%). The top five is holding more than one half of all sales in the US market.

Next come Jeep, Hyundai, KIA, Subaru, and RAM; they showed a positive trend for January - September 2016. At the same time, local Jeep (+ 12,2%) and RAM (+ 11,1%) achieved the highest growth.

Pickup trucks are so popular in the US that they occupy positions of three best-selling vehicles. The leader is Ford F-Series, which figure in the first nine months of this year amounted to 595.7 thousand cars (5.5% higher than a year ago). The second place is taken by Chevrolet Silverado (425,6 th.; -3.5%), and the third position – by RAM Pick-up (359,2 th.; + 8.6%).

source: consumerreports.org, focus2move.com