Japanese cars sweep quality survey

Thu., March 2, 2006

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

Toyota sales up; Ford off

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its U.S. sales rose 2 percent in February from a year ago on the strength of its pickups, but larger vehicles were the downfall for Ford Motor Co., which said sales dropped 3 percent for the month as consumers turned away from its sport utility vehicles in favor of smaller cars.

Toyota often sees double-digit monthly sales increases, but its results were lower in February as car sales dropped off 3 percent. Sales of the Toyota Camry fell 14 percent as buyers waited for a redesigned Camry to hit the market this month. But sales of the Tacoma pickup made up for those losses, rising nearly 26 percent. Toyota's overall sales are up nearly 8 percent for the year.

Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars climbed 11 percent for the first two months of this year, thanks to the success of Ford's trio of new sedans, the Ford Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr and Mercury Milan. But the No. 2 U.S. automaker's truck and SUV sales fell nearly 7 percent in the same time frame, as sales of SUVS like the Explorer and Expedition dropped 20 percent or more. Its overall sales were flat for the year.

DETROIT — For the first time in nine years, all of the top picks in Consumer Reports’ annual vehicle guide are made by Japanese automakers.

The Honda Civic is the magazine’s top small sedan, while the Toyota Highlander Hybrid is the top mid-sized sport utility vehicle, according to results released Wednesday. Vehicles from Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., round out the top picks in 10 categories.

Asian brands also fared best in the magazine’s survey of vehicle reliability. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus brand was first, while Honda was second and the Toyota brand was third. Ford Motor Co.’s Mercury brand was the only domestic nameplate to crack the top ten.

Consumer Reports’ rankings are important to automakers, even though companies can’t use the ratings in their advertising. Consumer Reports spokeswoman Lauren Hackett said the April auto issue is consistently the magazine’s most popular, selling more than 300,000 copies at newsstands. That’s twice as many copies as its second-most popular issue, the November electronics issue.

Consumer Reports named its top picks based on road and track tests, evaluations of comfort, convenience and fuel economy, crash protection ratings from the government and insurance industry and readers’ reliability rankings. The magazine said it recently tested more than 200 vehicles to come up with its top picks.

Honda had the most winners, snagging top picks in five of the ten categories.

Japanese cars sweep quality survey

Updated: Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix are crashing TV’s ad-selling party

Updated: Boeing reports $355 million loss amid door blowout crisis

FTC chief says tech advancements risk health care price fixing