Auto on Info: Car News and Commentary July 2007: The 2007 Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 7-to-9 Years Old, Toyota and Honda Account for 11 of 12 Best, GM - 22 of 41 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 30 Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typic

The 2007 Reliability-Durability Updates: For Vehicles 7-to-9 Years Old, Toyota and Honda Account for 11 of 12 Best, GM - 22 of 41 Worst: Will a Typical Toyota at 30 Years of Age Be as Troublesome as a Typical GM at 3 Years of Age?

Models by the Reliable Two account for eleven of the twelve highest Reliability Percentranks for 1998 vehicles between the ages of seven years and nine years. Of these, models by Toyota Motor Corporation account for six - 3 Lexi and 3 Toyotas - and models by Honda Motor Company account for five - 1 Acura and 4 Hondas.

The following table lists these top twelve models, together with their respective Reliability Percentranks.

The following chart depicts the relative presence of the major automobile manufacturers in this quality-cars-and-trucks table.

The following table provides photographs of the 2007 editions of Toyota's six models on the list of best, together with links to review pages. The review pages provide additional distinctions held by each model.

The next table provides photographs of the 2007 editions of Honda's three entries on the list of best, together with links to review pages. The review pages provide additional distinctions held by each model.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, GM-engineered models in General Motors Corporation's domestic lines account for 22 of the 41 worst models of 1998. Models in Ford Motor Company's domestic lines account for 3 of the 41 worst, and Chrysler Group's models account for 5 of the 41 worst. By percentage, GM's domestic-line models account for 54% of the worst of 1998, Ford's - 7%, and Chrysler's - 12%. If the European lines of GM (the Saab line), Ford (the Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover lines), and DaimlerChrysler AG (the Mercedes-Benz line) are included in the count, GM models account for 54% of the worst of 1998 (the same as without the Saab line, as there is no 1998 Saab model in CR's 2007 reliability tables), Ford models - 10%, and DaimlerChrysler models - 15%, for a total of 79% of the worst of 1998, nearly the same percentage as that of last year, when the vehicles were a year younger (see "Reliability Updates: For Vehicles 6-to-8 Years Old, Toyota Accounts for 7 of 10 Best, GM - 17 of 36 Worst," Auto on Info, August 2006).

The next table gives the individual models in the 2007 update of the worst cars and trucks table for model year 1998.

The Worst of 1998: Models with a Reliability Percentrank of .25 or Less in Vehicular Age of 7-to-9 Years
Model	Reliability Percentrank
4-cylinder Volkswagen Jetta	.25
General Motors' V6 2wd GMC Sonoma pickup	.25
General Motors' V6 2wd Chevrolet S-10 pickup	.25
Ford's Mercury Mystique	.24
Ford Contour	.24
Honda Passport	.21
General Motors' ext. Oldsmobile Silhouette	.21
General Motors' ext. Chevrolet Venture van	.21
General Motors' ext. Pontiac Trans Sport	.21
General Motors' GMC Suburban	.20
General Motors' GMC Yukon	.20
General Motors' Chevrolet Suburban	.20
4-cylinder Volkswagen Golf	.17
General Motors' Chevrolet Tahoe	.17
Chrysler's Dodge Neon	.17
Chrysler's Plymouth Neon	.17
Volkswagen's V6 Audi A6	.16
Chrysler Concorde	.16
Mercedes-Benz M-Class	.13
General Motors' V6 Chevrolet Monte Carlo	.13
General Motors' Pontiac Grand Prix (non-SC)	.13
General Motors' Pontiac Sunfire	.13
BMW 7-Series	.12
Volkswagen New Beetle	.12
Isuzu Rodeo	.11
Chrysler's Dodge Durango	.11
Volvo Cross Country, XC70	.09
Chrysler's Dodge Intrepid	.09
4-cylinder Volkswagen Passat	.07
Ford Windstar	.07
General Motors' Oldsmobile Cutlass	.07
General Motors' Chevrolet Malibu	.07
General Motors' V6 Chevrolet Malibu sedan	.07
General Motors' Oldsmobile Bravada	.05
General Motors' 4wd GMC Sonoma pickup	.03
General Motors' GMC Safari van	.03
General Motors' Chevrolet Astro van	.03
General Motors' GMC Jimmy	.02
4-cylinder fwd Volkswagen Passat	.01
General Motors' Cadillac Catera	.01
General Motors' Chevrolet Blazer	0.00

The following chart depicts the prevalence of the automobile manufacturers in the table of worst cars and trucks.

The next chart depicts the percentage that each line contributed to GM's worst of 1998.

The next chart depicts the rate of dilapidation of 1998 vehicles by Toyota Motor Corporation and U.S. domestic vehicles by Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler Group, and General Motors Corporation, per the Reliability Score. The chart should help visualize the difference in deterioration rates for each of the four largest automobile manufacturers, by U.S. sales.

Honda Motor Company's rate of dilapidation closely approximates that of Toyota, if the Honda Passport (the rebadged Isuzu) is omitted from the computation of its 1998 Reliability Score average.

The next chart suggests that a typical 1998 Toyota vehicle may be as troublesome to own at 30 years of age as a typical 1998 GM-engineered vehicle was at 3 years of age. The chart may help put the Toyota-GM gap in vehicular dilapidation into more practical terms.

The final set of charts provide a breakdown of the Reliability Grades of the more prominent automobile manufacturers for 1998 models at the vehicular age range 7-to-9 years.

From the charts, it may be easily seen that General Motors' models have more F's than Ford's and Chrysler's combined and, in keeping with a more diminutive product quality, GM-engineered models have not a single A and B. GM tied Chrysler in the number of D's, and one GM-engineered model garnered a C, which not a single Chrysler model was able to attain.