U.S. brands falter in auto reliability survey

DETROIT — U.S. auto companies such as General Motors, Tesla and Ford faltered this year in Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings as readers reported more mechanical trouble with their vehicles.

The magazine and website said all U.S.-based brands fell to the bottom half of 29 brands in the rankings. Lexus and Toyota were once again at the top.

Consumer Reports got more than 500,000 responses to the annual survey, and it uses the data from the 20002017 model years to predict reliability of 2019 vehicles.

The survey released Wednesday found that readers are having more trouble with technology designed to increase fuel economy than they are with electronic infotainment systems, which long had been a bugaboo for automakers and vehicle owners.

Mechanical problems with smaller turbocharged engines and transmissions with multiple gears could leave people stranded rather than just frustrated with voice recognition or other technology, said Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at the magazine.

“It’s worse for the consumer, absolutely,” Mr. Fisher said. “I would be happy to not be able to pair my phone five times than get stuck on the side of the road once.”

Mazda, Subaru, Kia, Infiniti, Audi, BMW, Mini and Hyundai rounded out the top 10 auto brands. Volvo had the worst reliability followed by Cadillac, Tesla, Ram and GMC. Asian or Korean brands took seven of the top 10 spots.

Tesla dropped six places from last year and now ranks 27th. GM’s Buick, normally a top-10 finisher, tumbled 11 spots to No. 19. Ford was the highest-ranked U.S. brand but fell three places to No. 18.

Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand took the top two slots for the sixth straight year. Toyota is slow to introduce new technology, only now offering Apple CarPlay when other automakers did it years ago, he said.

“If you’re slow to the market, you’re slow with technology, that’s the way you do get reliability and that’s how Toyota is so consistent,” he said.

Consumer Reports said it didn’t have enough data to rank Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mitsubishi or Smart.

The magazine gives more weight to mechanical and safety issues than minor problems like voice recognition or wind noise.