Abstract
This page provides two rankings of the Top 10 car brands sold in North America between late 1984 and 1989. Each ranking employs a different method of computation.
The 10 Best Car Brands of 1990
This page provides two rankings of the Top 10 car brands sold in North America between late 1984 and 1989. Each ranking employs a different method of computation.
The statistics used in the computations for rating and ranking the brands are those found within the April 1990 issue of Consumer Reports. The two sections providing the necessary statistics are CR’s Used-Cars-To-Avoid list and its reliability charts. Reliability is defined by the magazine as the infrequency of serious problems, which it measures annually by a subscriber survey.
The first ranking of the car brands is based on each brand’s infrequency of trouble-prone models. This ranking provides a measure of how well each brand’s models successfully avoided the bottom end of the model-quality spectrum.
The second ranking of the car brands is based on the average of the overall reliability ratings of each brand’s models. The second ranking provides a measure of how well a brand’s models performed over the entire model-quality spectrum.
Brand Quality by Infrequency of Trouble-Prone Models: The Top 10
To form a brand-quality measure from the 1990 list of Used Cars To Avoid, the first step is to count each brand’s entries on the list. Each model year of each model is treated as a separate entry.
Next, as the number of automobile models sold under a brand name varies greatly from brand to brand, it is necessary to take account of the fact that a brand with more models has a greater opportunity to have more model years of low quality. To compensate for a possibly inflated, or deflated, frequency of trouble-prone model years within a brand, as well as a variability in model data sufficiency, the number of a brand’s entries in CR’s 1990 Used-Cars-To-Avoid list is divided by the total number of overall reliability ratings for the brand found in the reliability charts of the same issue of Consumer Reports. The overall reliability ratings are found in the Trouble-Index row of the 1990 reliability charts.
By the method of computation, this quality measure begins with 0 and may run to a value some greater than 1. The value of 0 is the highest quality rating attainable by a brand and is achieved only when a brand has no entry on the Used-Cars-To-Avoid list.
From the graph, it may be seen that the Top 10 brands by infrequency of trouble-prone models include both brands of Honda Motor Company, Acura and Honda, BMW AG’s BMW, Toyota Motor Corporation’s Toyota brand, Ford Motor Company’s Lincoln brand, both of Volkswagen AG’s brands, Audi and Volkswagen, Volvo AB’s Volvo brand, Isuzu Motors Ltd’s Isuzu brand, and Daimler-Benz AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand.
Brand Quality by the Average of Overall Reliability Ratings: The Top 10
To compute brand-quality ratings and assemble a brand-quality ranking using Consumer Reports’ overall reliability ratings, a number is associated with each rating. A +1.0 is ascribed to a rating of Much Better Than Average, a +0.5 to a rating of Better Than Average, a 0 to a rating of Average, a -0.5 to a rating of Worse Than Average, and a -1.0 to a rating of Much Worse Than Average. Then an average is taken over all of the brand’s model years and models offering an overall reliability rating. CR’s 1990 overall reliability ratings are found in the Trouble-Index row of its reliability charts.
For this measure of quality, the range is from -1.0 (the worst possible) to +1.0 (the best possible).
The 10 best car brands by this set of computations, together with their quality ratings, are given in the bar graph below. Only those brands with at least 5 overall CR reliability ratings are included.
From this graph, it may be seen that the Top 10 brands by overall reliability include both of Honda’s brands, Acura and Honda, Toyota’s Toyota brand, Mazda Motor Corporation’s Mazda brand, Nissan’s Nissan brand, Fuji heavy Industries’ Subaru brand, Mitsubishi Motor Corporation’s Mitsubishi brand, BMW’s BMW brand, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand, and Isuzu’s Isuzu brand.
Summary
There are 5 brands common to both best-10 lists; they are:
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Both of Honda’s brands - Acura and Honda
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Toyota’s Toyota brand
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BMW’s BMW brand
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Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand
To view the graphs showing the ratings and rankings of all brands, visit http://carsoninfo.net/AllCarBrandsof1990.aspx .
With regard to the above link to Cars on Info, the host is Microsoft; consequently, if you click the link, you will likely need to click the refresh button once or twice to access the linked page.
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