Consumer Reports releases 2013 reliability rankings

Japanese brands continue to dominate the Consumer Reports Annual Auto Reliability rankings, while some European brands gained and Ford Motor Co. continued to rank near the bottom of the industry.

Lexus, Toyota and Acura swept the top three spots in the 2013 rankings and Japanese brands took seven of the top 10 places. But Germany's Audi took fourth, Volvo jumped 13 places to No. 7 and GMC finished ninth, Jake Fisher, director of auto tester for the magazine, said in presenting the report at an Automotive Press Association event here today.

Ford Motor Co. was rated 63 percent below industry average in the survey, with Ford brand No. 26 and Lincoln No. 27, better than only BMW's Mini brand of the 28 rated.

A year earlier the Ford brand fell to 27th out of the 28 brands rated and Lincoln dropped to 26th.

The magazine said complaints about Ford's electronic control system, MyFordTouch, were the main reason for the continued low results, although it also said a significant numbers of respondents also reported problems with the Ford EcoBoost engine.

The only two Japanese brands not to finish in the top 10 this year were Scion, the top brand in 2012 but No. 11 this year, and Nissan, which fell nine spots to No. 22 this year.

Detroit 3 results were mixed, Consumer Reports said. General Motors' GMC and Buick had above-average reliability overall, while Chevrolet was just-below average and Cadillac finished No. 25.

Chrysler Group overall finished with reliability 18 percent below average, the magazine said.

(Lexus tops reliability rankings; Ford again near bottom originally appeared on Automotive News.)

By Jesse Snyder