Toyota recalls 470000 vehicles in Japan
 

DETROIT - Ford continues to rise in Consumer Reports' annual survey of vehicle reliability. Toyota's scores, while still favorable, are falling.

Honda and its Acura nameplate topped this year's ranking.

The list tries to predict the reliability of 2008 model year vehicles based on past performance. Hummer and Land Rover were the least reliable. The top-rated domestic brand was Buick, coming in 10th.

Making it into the top ten were Toyota's Lexus, Scion and Toyota brands, and Toyota had 17 vehicles on Consumer Reports' list of the 39 most reliable models, far more than any other automaker.

Consumer Reports says the storied brand "is showing cracks in its armor" and no longer will receive automatic recommendations from the magazine when it releases new or redesigned vehicles. Consumer Reports used to recommend Toyota without any reliability data based on past performance.

Forty-one of 44 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, or 93 percent, scored average or better in predicted reliability, compared with 67 percent of Chrysler's models and 49 percent of General Motors' models.

Source: [url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3d87f1fc-7cd3-11dc-aee2-0000779fd2ac.html]Financial Times[/url]