In 2021 Consumer Reports’ Auto Reliability Report, Lexus was named the most trustworthy automaker, followed by Toyota and Mazda, with Lincoln, Jeep, and Tesla, at the bottom of the list. The research, which was released on Thursday, looks at what went wrong with the owners’ cars in the previous year and utilizes that information to forecast how trustworthy future models from big automakers would be.
Consumer Reports polled over 300,000 vehicle owners from 2000 to 2021 and utilized the results to forecast 269 different automobiles for the 2022 model year. The research covers 28 automakers as well as 144 models that have a track record. This year, battery-powered electric vehicles accounted for a larger share of the list than ever before, with a wide range of reliability ratings, while the gas-electric hybrids are amongst the most reliable cars overall.
As per Jake Fisher, who works as the senior director in charge of the auto testing at the Consumer Reports, Consumer Reports scored 11 purely electric models from eight manufactures, including 5 fully electric SUVs. “The entire market is moving toward an all-electric fleet.” “We’re curious to see what this implies in terms of dependability,” Fisher added.
Overall, Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand recaptured the top rank in the reliability study after Mazda toppled it a year earlier, marking the very first time a Toyota brand hasn’t been No. 1 in 15 years. In this year’s survey, Mazda came in second, followed by the major Toyota brand. Domestic brands like Chrysler, Chevrolet, and Ford had medium reliability, while Ram, GMC, and Jeep had below-average reliability. The luxurious Lincoln brand, which is owned by Ford, came in 28th, behind Tesla.
The reliability of electric vehicles was rated in a variety of ways. The Tesla Model X, as well as Audi E-tron, were both rated “far below average” for reliability in this sector, while the Kia Niro Electric Vehicle was rated “well above average.” “Above average reliability” was awarded to the Nissan Leaf and the latest Ford Mustang Mach-E.
In the overall poll, high-end electric SUVs are amongst the least trustworthy vehicles. “There’s no reason totally electric automobiles can’t be as reliable, if not more so, than traditional internal combustion engines,” Fisher said. “It’s how they put the technology to use.”
The issue was not with electric drivetrains. Fisher, on the other hand, blamed excessive high-tech whistles and bells. “There is a tendency for EV debuts to just introduce so much technology that isn’t essential,” Fisher added.
The reliability rankings contrast sharply with Consumer Reports’ satisfaction poll, in which Tesla came out on top, followed by Lincoln, for the year 2020. According to Fisher, Tesla’s success with clients has put a lot of pressure on other carmakers to amaze and satisfy customers with features ranging from amusing to serious. Over-the-air software updates, pioneered by Elon Musk’s electric car firm, can provide owners’ cars new navigation capabilities like “waypoints” or deliver a recall remedy without a dealership visit. Adding more hardware, software, and features, on the other hand, increases complexity, which, according to Fisher, can jeopardize reliability.
