Japan on top in Consumer Reports’ list of best cars

Posted Thu Mar 1 2007 5:21 AM by Kenneth Hall

Influential magazine Consumer Reports has come out with its annual list of the ten best cars of 2007, and once again Japanese automakers have dominated the results. Every vehicle from Toyota and Honda earned at least a recommendation, with the two companies combined achieving seven places in the magazine’s top ten picks. In stark contrast, America’s automakers couldn’t even manage a single spot, a feat they haven’t accomplished since April of 2005.

Consumer Reports' David Champion conceded that the Americans weren’t up to scratch, admitting he “still thinks Detroit is trailing." In a strange move, the magazine excluded two categories where US carmakers usually excel, large SUVs and full-size pickups. Champion’s reason was that most of the models in these categories were new to 2007 such as Ford’s new Edge, which was disapproved because of a hard-to-open tailgate.

Credit was given to the big three for beating many European models as well as some Japanese cars, especially in the quality stakes. But Detroit’s automakers were still criticized for scoring low on the magazine’s overall test, which measures the cars with up to 50 different criteria. Chrysler was easily the worst of the big three, coming in second last, followed by GM and then Ford. It’s funny to see publications such as the Detroit Free Press continue to praise America’s automakers even though they rated badly. It’s time the local media started giving Detroit its wake up call.

Follow the jump to see which cars came out on top for each of the ten categories.

Fun to drive - Mazda MX-5 Miata

Small SUV - Toyota RAV4

Small sedan - Honda Civic

Family sedan - Honda Accord

Minivan - Toyota Sienna

Luxury sedan - Infiniti M35

Midsized SUV - Toyota Highlander Hybrid

Budget cars - Honda Fit

Green car - Toyota Prius

Upscale sedan - Infiniti G35

Reader Comments

Thu Mar 1 2007 12:57 PM
Michael Karesh says

My main problem with Consumer Reports' road test ratings is that they never provide the formula used to calculate scores. I asked one of their road test engineers why. His only response: "it's policy."

Without knowing this formula, their ratings aren't all that useful, as it's not possible to tell how closely their priorities match your own.

But even so I have far fewer issues with their ratings than their reliability info.

Note that Consumer Reports' annual auto issue includes reliability ratings for the year ending March 31, 2006. The data on which their reliability verdicts are based is nearly a year old.

Because our surveys at TrueDelta.com are more frequent, and we analyze the data promptly, our results will average over ten months' "fresher" than theirs. I've already posted results for the year ending December 31, 2006.

When considering a car, do you want to know how reliable it was a year ago, when it was a year younger, or how reliable it has been recently?

Latest results:

http://www.truedelta.com/results1206.php
Thu Mar 1 2007 9:50 PM
Renton says

Honda S2000.... one of their highest rated cars ever, and they leave it off the list. MX-5 is great no doubt, but it is no S2000.

Rest of the list is OK, but replace G35 with BMW 328i

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