Consumer Reports - Least Reliable Cars

[ThaiBob]

Not all are sold in Thailand and Ford doesn't fair so well. 

 

[bazza73]

The automotive industry is a mature industry. Any unreliable cars are identified very quickly. Nowadays, it's more about the cost of replacement parts and quality of servicing.

[AboutThaim]

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

[Grumpy Duck]

I remember my moms mustang with V-6 engine the factory ac would only work on highway, not city driving, in Phoenix that was terrible in summer. 

[StevieAus]

10 hours ago, AboutThaim said:

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

 

10 hours ago, AboutThaim said:

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

Didn’t Holden cease production in Australia only recently and I wasn’t aware that their cars were sold in Thailand ?

I have bought Toyota for years both in Australian and here in Thailand

and agree that they are very reliable but I don’t think you can generalise,

I seem to recall that they had some big problems with a particular model in the US a few years ago

Last year we bought a top of the line Ford and very happy with the car.

 

[bazza73]

52 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

 

Didn’t Holden cease production in Australia only recently and I wasn’t aware that their cars were sold in Thailand ?

I have bought Toyota for years both in Australian and here in Thailand

and agree that they are very reliable but I don’t think you can generalise,

I seem to recall that they had some big problems with a particular model in the US a few years ago

Last year we bought a top of the line Ford and very happy with the car.

 

It's very rare to see any Australian Fords or Holdens in Thailand, due to the 100% import tax. Then, no servicing infrastructure in Thailand.

Holdens and Fords in Australia were reasonably reliable. The engines on both brands were pretty well bullet-proof. Being big sixes, they did not have to work all that hard. You could expect 300,000 km out of those engines, half a million if it was a taxi.

Buyers turned away from Ford in particular for two reasons. That 4.0 litre six is as thirsty as a dehydrated camel. They made their own plastics for the trim, and the plastic was forever breaking as it was crap.

Who can forget Ford's Wild Violet? While it was actually the paint supplier's fault, after a couple of years in the Australian sun that body colour looked like it had developed leprosy.

I've owned Fords, Holdens and Mitsubishi Magnas in Australia. IMHO Mitsubishi was way better than Holden and Ford. One 4 cylinder Magna I owned racked up 400,000 km. Unfortunately for Mitsubishi, the Australian public didn't see it that way.

[ThaiBob]

12 hours ago, AboutThaim said:

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

All American cars in that era were known for problems and foreign competition led to their demise from which it never fully recovered. The problem is the Ford Focus and Fiestas from the review are Ford's "world" cars and manufactured in many countries. In America there is much more competition than here in Thailand but I would avoid Ford passenger cars here. Ford's products today are vastly superior to yesteryear but the problem for them, so is the competition. 

[maximillian]

Here in Thailand I had big trouble with a 2nd hand Hyundai Soltana or Soluna. Present car is a Mazda BT 50, 2009, very reliable, very reasonable on Diesel consumption, about 7 to 8 liters on 100 km. Good service at Mazda. So the next car will be a Mazda again.

[Chongalulu]

14 hours ago, AboutThaim said:

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

All modern cars are far more reliable than their 30 year old counterparts and mechanically need less maintenance. They are vastly more sophisticated having electronic driver aids and comfort accessories that weren’t dreamed about 30 years ago. Sometimes that electronic wizardry goes wrong but basically a far superior car .

[Just Weird]

4 hours ago, maximillian said:

Here in Thailand I had big trouble with a 2nd hand Hyundai Soltana or Soluna. Present car is a Mazda BT 50, 2009, very reliable, very reasonable on Diesel consumption, about 7 to 8 liters on 100 km. Good service at Mazda. So the next car will be a Mazda again.

Didn't those Hyundai Soltanas and Solunas compete directly with the Toyota Sonatas?

[Goldieinkathu]

The Ford Fiesta should be given an extra special prize, ours was a 2011 model and it was crap then, 7 years later and it's still crap, who would have thought?!

[maximillian]

8 hours ago, Goldieinkathu said:

The Ford Fiesta should be given an extra special prize, ours was a 2011 model and it was crap then, 7 years later and it's still crap, who would have thought?!

Had a Ford Fiesta 2nd Generation back in Germany. 1.8 l Diesel, year 198?.  It was one of my best cars.

Great for driving in snow and very economical consuming 4.5 l Diesel/100 km.

Good seats in front. Could drive for hours in that little car without getting a backache.

Next car was a Ford Scorpion 2.5 l Diesel. Bought it cheaply bc it had already 270.000 km on the clock. Drove it another 200.000 without any problems. Big outside, bigger inside, great seats, also very economical in spite of the high mileage.

Then again I had some good and some rather bad experiences with VW and Mercedes- Benz.

Some other great cars I had was a Nissan Bluebird Diesel, a Mazda 626, a Toyota RAV4 and a Honda Accord. The Mazda 626 (Gasoline) gave me unbelieveable 600.000 km.

[Fat Prophet]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 8:19 PM, AboutThaim said:

I think maybe 30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much more reliable and had better build quality.  Now I wouldn't go near either.  Two of my sons, one a Ford fan the other a Holden fan have given up due to poor build, lack of reliability and the cost of repairs.  Both now own Toyotas.

I think you have it exactly backwards -- "30 years ago both Ford and Holden (GM) were much [less] reliable and had [much worse] build quality than they have today".  In fact, both were claimed to have "built in obsolescence" into their vehicles. And people turned their cars over more frequently, so build quality and reliability wasn't as important to consumers as it is now, with people on average now keeping cars much longer. Today, thanks to serious competition from Honda, Mazda and Toyota on quality/reliability, Ford and GM have been forced to respond with better quality and more reliable cars. In fact some GM vehicles rank quite high in build quality and reliability (In 2015, Consumer Reports ranked Buick (no.6) ahead of Honda (No.7; No. 1 Lexus, No. 2 Mazda; No. 3 Toyota, and No. 4 Audi) and said "Buick received an overall score of 69 with a road test score of 76 and a high predicted reliability rating. Consumer Reports said, the company "is in the process of shedding its stodgy image with a product resurgence led by the sporty, refined, competitive, and affordable Regal"). But while Ford and GM are more reliable than they used to be, on a relative basis they are still far less reliable that their Japanese counterparts. And in Thailand, overall quality of service and parts availability and a broader location of factory service centers of the Japanese vehicles (Toyota in particular), make them the clear choice over Ford and GM. So, while I disagree with your premise, I fully agree with your conclusion -- "...I wouldn't go near either".

[JaseTheBass]

Any figures for cars made on Mars?

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