ROME – With the advance of electrification, the opinions of motorists on the reliability of the various models are also changing. Among the first to register the change underway is the authoritative magazine “Consumer Reports”, published by the American consumer association which in its traditional annual study highlights how hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles are establishing themselves in terms of reliability on the US market (Toyota Prius and Honda Insight in the lead). Consumers’ opinion of fully electric cars is not as good as they have highlighted a number of serious problems.
Overall, however, Japanese brands stand out, occupying 8 places in the top 10 in the Consumer Reports study, with only one European brand (Mini) and one American brand (Buick) in the top ten. In fact, the brands with the fewest reliability problems were Lexus, Mazda, Toyota and Infiniti (Nissan’s luxury brand), followed by Buick in fifth place, and Honda, Subaru, Acura (Honda’s premium brand) and Nissan. .
“The Japanese – said Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports – are more conservative in launching new technologies. Toyota and Lexus, in particular, tend to come in last with content like Apple CarPlay. And this has served them very well ”. As a practical example, the Lexus GX SUV was found to be the most reliable model in this year’s Consumer Reports study rankings, which is also one of the oldest products on the market. This means that the Japanese company has had all the time available to solve any problems by raising the level of reliability to the maximum.
“Technology is a double-edged sword when it comes to consumer needs and product reliability,” added Fisher. “Automakers say customers want more high-tech features, but those same features also tend to fail. Moreover”. The Consumer Reports analysis finds confirmation of what is also described by other researches such as, for example, the JD Power Initial Quality Study which highlights how the functions such as CarPlay, satellite navigation and voice controls are among the causes of the greatest number of problems reported by customers in the field of reliability. (maurilio rigo)
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