Consumer Reports Identifies Most, Least Problematic Used Vehicles

New-car reliabilityis one thing, but how well will your car hold up three, five, even 10 years from now? On average, Toyota and Honda vehicles age best while those made by Volkswagen fare worst, according to new survey information from Consumer Reports.

For the first time, Consumer Reports has reported on the reliability of vehicles built in the past 10 model years (1997-2006). In addition, Consumer Reports has also identified vehicles that are most prone to specific problems to give used-car buyers more information than ever when making a purchase decision, the magazine says.

Detailed reliability ratings of 248 makes and models can be found in the April issue of Consumer Reports magazine, available March 6, or by logging in at http://www.ConsumerReports.org.

Among 10-year-old vehicles, owners of Japanese cars report the fewestproblems overall, the magazine says.

Toyota, Honda, and Subaru lead the way with an average of 65, 89, and 90 problems per 100 vehicles reported, respectively. Theaverage of all 10-year-old vehicles is 132 problems per 100 vehicles.

Of the domestic 10-year-old vehicles, those from Ford (including Lincoln and Mercury) remain most reliable, at about 120 problems per 100 vehicles. Ten-year-old vehicles from GM and Chrysler are nearly neck-and-neck with about 160 problems per 100 vehicles. Volkswagen (including Audi) owners reported about 175 problems per 100 vehicles, by far worse than anyother brand, the magazine says.

The oldest Korean vehicles (eight years old) from Hyundai (including Kia) that Consumers Reports says it has sufficient reliability data for are problematic, faring worse than all domestics and half of some European brands. Newer models, however, show improvements, the magazine adds.

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