Best and worst used cars

Buying a used car is often the best choice for consumers. If well-maintained, it can be a good value and later models have many of the newer safety features as well. The models listed below have the best and worst reliability history in the 10 years (1999-2008) covered by our Annual Auto Survey. For more information on how used cars are holding up, see report on the most and least reliable used cars.  Also, see our list of the best used cars under $20,000.

These models scored well in our tests, were recommended when new, and have had multiple model-years of better-than-average reliability.	Steer clear; these models have had several years of much worse than average reliability.
Toyota Prius	Chevrolet Uplander/Venture
Toyota Echo	Saturn Relay
Lexus SC	Land Rover Discovery/LR3
Toyota Highlander	Volkswagen Touareg
Honda S2000	Cadillac SRX (V6)
Infiniti M35	Buick Rendezvous (AWD)

Visit the annual auto issue special section for quick access to the latest Ratings, articles, and videos.

Comments

[Brian]

Wow, 6/6 for quality coming from Japanese companies, 4/6 for crap coming from G.M. Why are we bailing out these losers again?

[Grant]

GM has topped the crappy car list... big surprise. Thanks unionization. GM is paying their assembly line workers $150,000/year and they still can't create a descent automobile.

[Paul]

Grant, are you being deliberately obtuse?

GM's quality issues have nothing to do with unionization and everything to do with management at the corporate level.

And, for the record, my brother is a line supervisor at at GM plant and most certainly does NOT make $150k a year. Cite a source for that nonsense or STFU.

[MP]

Grant,

I have to agree with Paul. His brother isn't making 150K a year. Its probably allot more than that!!!

[Carl B.]

There is no problem GM has that a good product can't fix. They haven't had that for a long time and this is the logical conclusion. They fought, and still fight, fuel economy standards that would have made them competitive with the Japanese and they deserve to go under.

You can't blame the unions. Nobody put a gun to GM's head and forced them to sign.

[Steve]

MP and Grant,
Why are you blaming the laborer. Is it because you're a disgruntle non-union laborer? Does the fact that a GM line worker makes a decent living (of approximately $28 an hour) make you ill?
Did you happen to notice how out of touch with reality the big man from GM was during his testimony before the US Congress?
Oh now I get it GM happened to hire a couple of great people on top who make the business decisions and then by bad luck or fortune they hired thousands of bad laborers!
For your info. USA Toyota line workers make about $25 an hour.

[Jimmy]

I'm in Bolivia and I'm thinking to buy a used suzuki sidekick mod 94.It cost $5000 do you know if that vehicle is worth the price?

[keith]

I think what we need to do is send all our labor overseas so that we can have the best of all products to buy and the only thing that the USA produces will be usless crap. When all the products are no longer made here and half the population of the country has no work then we will not need to worry about slite inconvenices of the products we no longer will be able to purchase, won't that be great. When you think about and complain about how bad an american product is maybe you should think about how good a job you do with whatever it is that you do. Yes I have a family menber in GM no they do not make the money that has been stated although they do make a good living and should retire with a good pention. One should go and visit a manufacturing facility in the summer and see how much fun it is to be there it might give some perspective on the pay. Lets try to have some bride in being an American. If you wish you can beat up my spelling or whatever but still how about a bit of pro USA.

[Jon]

From what I see as the problem between quality Japanese versus American made cars isn't the people performing the work. It's the quality of parts used in the manufacturing. I believe G.M., Ford, Chrysler are sadled with so much more cost for retirement benefits, health care, etc. that they need the cheapest parts possible from their suppliers to make a profit. When I've owned G.M. or Chrysler cars its always a part failure; ECM's, alternators, brake components. Whenever I had gone in for brake jobs it always required the rotors to be replaced, no more turning them once or twice. The Toyota I own now hasn't needed a brake job yet and it is at 62K. This is just an opinion from my experiences over the last 25 years of owning domestic and foreign.

[Ares]

The quality of American-made vehicles used to be the most important thing about them. What happened? Are the corporate suits so greedy that they paid themselves more while product quality suffered? Could it be? Certainly not in America...

[K]

Its like Jon said. American business procedure provides that union workers receive benefits that the Japanese business does not give. Therefore, Japanese automotive industries get to pump more money into better parts.

[Lubbock Cars]

Bailing GM out was the worst thing we could have done. Let them go under, and see what new auto manufacturing companies form. Let's let go of the past, look to the future. The past is what got us into this mess.

[Lynda and Chris Baldry]

4. Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius is proving to be a good, solid car but as the hybrid approaches 100,000 miles a number of odd problems are popping up that ought to be cause for concern among consumers shopping for a secondhand hybrid.

The Japanese automaker began selling gas-and-electric cars ten years ago and is now the acknowledged hybrid leader in the automotive industry.

But a growing number of ConsumerAffairs.com readers are reporting that the Prius hybrid technology is not aging well. With some Prius models in the U.S. on the road now for eight years and approaching 100,000 miles, owners are beginning to encounter problems that are unique to the hybrids.

One reader reported to us that in her 2004 Prius the hybrid display began to malfunction and “did not work with the result of being unable to get gas into car."

A California reader told us that the monitor is also failing in his Prius and said that Toyota is unwilling to provide any assistance because the monitor is no longer covered by the Toyota warranty.

“There is a technical service bulletin out on it from Toyota which tells the dealer how to repair the problem but only if the car is under factory warranty,” he said. “My car has 49,000 miles on it and is out of warranty.”

A Texas Prius owner with 91,000 miles on his hybrid said that "the dashboard lit up with multiple warning lights. The dealer picked it up and said that the transmission went out and it would cost $6,000 to fix and the Prius was out of warranty.”

Toyota allowed no coverage, not even partial help even though the transmission was part of the Hybrid Power train covered for 5 years and 100,000 miles.

A southern California Prius owner told us that his car has died on the freeway four times. The second time the dealer had the car for 53 days waiting for parts.

The growing number of complaints and problems owners of aging Prius hybrids are encountering suggest that a wary consumer ought to look long and hard before becoming the second owner of one of these hybrids.

Toyota warrants the hybrid drive system for 100,000 miles, but as Danny in San Antonio discovered, there can be some uncertainty as to which of the Prius components are considered part of the hybrid drive and which are not.

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/06/10_used_cars.html#ixzz0Qjk1rEKN