Newest CR ratings out. CR says:
“Ford?s sustained production of vehicles that are as dependable?or better than?some of the industry?s best dispels the notion that only Japanese manufacturers make reliable cars. Other than the Toyota Prius, the reliability of the four-cylinder Fusion and Milan ranks higher than that of any other family sedan. Both of those Ford Motor Company products continue to beat the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, while the upscale Lincoln MKZ tops its rivals, the Acura TL and Lexus ES.”
More here http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/
The bad thing about CR is that they only track data for 4-5 years…I’ve NEVER had a problem with any domestic vehicle for the first 5 years of ownership. My experience and that of family members put Honda and Toyota MILES ahead of Ford on quality. I’m still very skeptical of Ford making anything anywhere near the quality of my wifes Accords…220k miles with $4 in repairs…
Agree; Ford has made great progress in the quality area. A fusion is as good a car as a Camry or Accord. That does not mean they have the same life expectancy, however. We’ll have to wait for 10 years or so to see how well a Fusion ages.
Having said that, I would still not endorse any Chrysler product and as far as GM goes, the Buick, some Cadillacs and a few others are OK; I would avoid the rest.
The article proves that US companies can build world class cars if they really put their minds to it and let engineers make some of the critical decisions that used to be made by bean counters.
The article proves that US companies can build world class cars if they really put their minds to it and let engineers make some of the critical decisions that used to be made by bean counters.
I’ve been saying that for YEARS…Said it in this forum on more then one occasion.
All that goodness, since 2006! We’re talking tradition here and we all know that Ford is just full of it! I do hope it lasts a bit longer.
My inlaws have nothing but good luck with used Ford’s(F150, Windstar, Aerostar) bought for <$4000 driven 100k miles in their ownership with few repairs and only acute maintenance.
I have found CR generally is biased against US cars. These are mostly self reports and not really scientific surveys. That said, US car makers did poorly in pushing up their image for many years. They often failed at directing dealers to pay for or make corrective repairs when problems were found. Maybe reducing the number of dealers will help because there are far more US car dealers per car sold than the Japanese makes. If I remember its a 4 or 3 to 1 ratio. This means each dealer has lower volume for US cars and relies more on repair revenue than car sales. This changes the business model.
CR is just like J.D. Power, and other consumer organization; limited in scope, subjective surveys and opinions, and personal biases.
Ford has been building good cars for decades and I say that as someone who not only owns them but who accrues a lot of miles while doing so.
Very few mechanical faults and most repairs are maintenace or wear/tear related.
I guarantee that a competent tech can take any 200-250k miles car no matter the make, put it on a lift, and find a number of legitimate needed repairs that the car owner is blissfully unaware even exists.
I don’t want to start this again but I’ve bought Olds and Buicks most of my life and have had good luck with all. After watching those jokers in the congressional hearings though, and seeing that they could care less about US jobs, I don’t feel guilty one bit about buying a new Acura. Not a bit of trouble and treated like royalty for an oil change. HID headlight burned out and didn’t cost a cent.
Just saying, its going to take a long time for me to feel good about them again. I wanted to support the US, not Australia, Mexico, and China, but the Acura has more US labor in it than a lot of GM. Then they dump Pontiac and keep Cadillac and Buick?? Pontiac styling was the only thing halfway fresh for under $50K. Sheesh. OK, I feel better now. Its really not about dependability anymore for me. I’m mad at them.
About 10 years ago I was doing some traveling for work and the rental car I got was the Focus. I was going to DC every other week for almost 5 months. MOST of the time I got the same Focus…It was a GREAT little car. Of the 10k miles on it I probably put on 8k of them myself…
My brother bought a Focus the following year…It was GREAT up until about the 80k mile mark…then it just fell apart. After 5 years…JUNK…So you never can never tell how long it will last. I know other people here have had great luck with their Taurus’s. Sister-in-law owned two of them…JUNK after 5 years and LESS then 50k miles…and I mean JUNK. With her new job she decided to buy something more reliable since she’s now putting almost triple the miles then what she use to…she bought a 09 Accord…After almost one year (30k miles)…NO problems…Her Taurus’s were starting to have a lot of issues by now…We’ll see when the car is 5 years old…BTW…bought the car from the dealer she’s been dealing with for the past 40 years…He started selling Honda’s 5 years ago. Same garage for all scheduled maintenance too.
The Focus is basically a British design and quite suitable for Europe where they drive much less, don’t use salt, and get rid of their cars before they accummlate a lot of miles.
Being a car in North America is challenging; heavy use, indifferent maintenance, and an expectaion of long life with an average of 4 owners. The Focus does not have the “genes” that a Mazda 3 has, for instance, even though they share the same DESIGN PLATFORM. The Mazda 3 is a tough car sold all over the world as a workhorse.
The Fusion is a US Ford design to compete head on with such reputable, long life cars as the Accord and the Camry. So Ford put extra effort into it. Expect it to last longer and age better than a Taurus, which in later years was “bean countered” to death.
Ford will be selling the Fiesta (another Britich design) starting next year. Unless they beef up the design and component quality, it will be a dismal failure as were previous Fiestas, Cortinas, Capris, Consuls, Zephers, Anglias and Prefects.
The Festiva was a Korean econobox built by Kia. It was one of the few good Ford imports.
Both Ford and Toyota have invested the money necessary to put a high-quality finish on their vehicles. GM & Chrysler destroyed themselves by allowing their paint shops to become antiquated and producing vehicles that started to dissolve before they were paid for…
Compare an eight year old Ford or Toyota to anything else and you will see what I mean…
The point I was making about the Focus is that you can’t tell how good a car will be years from now by how well it drives NOW. If you could then I would highly recommend anyone to buy one because my limited driving experience was EXCELLENT.
Mike; I understand your point, cars with good genes age well. My retired neighbor has a 2005 Focus which has has 4 oil changes so far, since he drives very little. He loves the car and it has been quite reliable; for the 16,000 miles so far! He will give this car to his daughter in 2 years and buy another new small Ford. He had 2 previous Escorts.
Unlike the Fox Network, CR does not have any built-in biases. The strictly go by the survey results of 25,000 or so reporting members who own a wide variety of cars, and tally the results. Since assembly quality of US cars in the past left a lot to be desired, US cars tended to have a higher frequency of complaints and things that needed fixing. So reliability in the first 3 years or so was always less for US cars.
I would agree that now there should be a longer time to evalutae how well cars age, since most cars now have no serious problems for the first 4 years, and assembly quality has increased a great deal.
CR can easily do this since they have a 30 year history on their files. Current stats are for up to 8 years, but that info is 1 year old, so 7 years is more like it.
I have used CR car stats since the late 60s, and found them to be a good guide to HELP make decisions. I would like them to publish actual $$ figures spent on maintenance and repairs to help people judge the overall cost to own the vehicle.
I use CR also…as ONE guide of few others. I DON’T use it as BIBLE. They have made mistakes. Unless the vehicle they are testing has a LARGE user base their data can be way off of reality. There are also vehicles which is a twin of another vehicle from a different division of the same company…made at the same plant using the same workers…only difference is some minor cosmetic differences…yet these cars have different ratings by CR. But in general they are a good guide.
I have a 09 Fusion I bought in May, my girlfriend just bought a 07 Camry with 43k. Each car is a four cylinder. I love my Fusion in part because I got a decent deal on it, but its no Camry.
The Toyota has a better interior quality, more modern nicer interior, it has more power and is quieter. As far as reliability, who knows? My Fusion had all four rotors replaced at 400 miles. Also, there is a possible issue shifting into second gear which I’m going to post about soon.
I dunno, my dad still has our old 1974 Ford F-100. The body/chassis has about 300k on it. The engine has about 270k on it (we swapped a junkyard 390 4bbl in place of the lethargic 302 bbl). It’s been trouble free, just normal maintence. But to be honest it doesn’t have much to go wrong on it (no power brakes or steering, no AC, 3 on the tree, etc.) I will say I don’t see many Hondas or Toyotas from the mid 70’s on the road.
I will say I don’t see many Hondas or Toyotas from the mid 70’s on the road.
GEEEEE…I wonder why?? Could it be because there were less Toyota’s AND Honda’s (combined) sold then even AMC. I think Ford sold more Pinto’s then Toyota or Honda cars sold. I will also admit that ALL Japanese manufacturers had major problems with premature RUST…even worse then Chryco…Problem solved by the mid 80’s.
HOWEVER…I have no problem finding Accords, Camry’s, Civic’s from the 80’s. 80’s Taurus??? 80’s Escort??? The very very few I see (RUNNING) are all on life support.
#3…I’m a HUGE fan of Detroit vehicles from the 60’s thru early 70’s (with a few exceptions). They made EXCELLENT vehicles back then. My Dad’s Malibu SS had about 350k miles on it when the timing chain broke. Too bad they don’t make cars like that anymore.
Sometimes it’s the drivers Mike. When the large GM cars were actual cookie cuttter models except for trim and upholstery, Buick was always best, followed by Oldsmobile, then Chevy and Pontiac was always the worst. Some of these cars were made in the same plant!
You don’t have to be a sociologist to find out why these results; Buick owners were careful midle class, middle-age and up drivers, Olds drivers were identified by Dick van Patten (chubby, responsible family types), Chevy drivers were the busy mid to low income husbands with family responsibilities, but Pontiac sold ATTITUDE in capitals. Pontiac drivers in ads were anti-social and aggressive, and not likely inclined to spend a lot of time maintaining their cars, or driving carefully!