Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand finished one-and-two for the second year in a row in Consumer Reports' quality survey of the U.S. new-vehicle market.
The fourth lowest-scoring brands were all from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Chrysler, as were the five of the bottom seven, according to Reuters.
"Toyota has a strategy that emphasizes reliability over excitement," says Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports' head of auto testing, according to the Associated Press. "They take a conservative approach to redesign and roll out new features slowly. The risk is they may not have the latest bells and whistles, but the reward is world class reliability."
Fiat scored the lowest of the 28 companies and the Fiat 500L was named the least reliable among 265 vehicles included in the survey. The survey is considered an important factor in influencing car buyers in the U.S.
Jake Fisher said it seems Chrysler has been "picking less reliable partners" as times goes on, including Japan's Mitsubishi Motors, German's Daimler AG and Italy's Fiat, according to Reuters.
Chrysler's brands have been at or near the bottom of the survey since 2009. The group's share of the U.S. market has risen to 12.2 percent in 2014 through September from less than 9 percent in 2009.
The biggest issue about new vehicles is that infotainment systems don't work as advertised.
Infotainment systems include safety features, as well as satellite radio and hands-free telephone and internet capabilities.
Fisher said complaints about infotainment systems are about how they perform once a driver fully "understands them," according to Reuters.
The survey was completed out by 1.1 million consumers, compared to 1.3 million in 2010.
Ford Motor's Lincoln brand posted the biggest gain in this year's survey, which was up 12 spots to 15th place. The biggest drop was recorded by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, due to its poor showing for its CLA model, according to the survey.
Toyota brands perform well since the automaker takes a deliberate approach to introducing new features whereas other companies work towards developing technology and power train, which have the greatest chance to disappoint.
Ford didn't perform well in the survey just a few years ago thanks to its "MyTouch" infotainment systems. The complaint rate is improved in the 2014 survey, however, Fisher said.
Japanese brands took the first four places, with Mazda coming in third and Honda Motor coming in fourth. Fifth was VW's luxury brand Audi, followed by GM's Buick at No. 6.
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