Best Among the Rest: Japanese used cars

Posted by Kyoko Nitori
4
Mar 15, 2013
734 Views
There is no reason to be reluctant in buying Japanese used cars because according to the 2012 Car Reliability Survey conducted by Consumer Reports, Japanese brands are the best when it comes to reliability. The top three brands are Scion, Toyota, and Lexus—interestingly, all three are brands of Toyota Motor Corporation. The Japanese brands beat American and European marques, proving that they have a high standard of vehicle reliability.

Reliability is an important factor in selecting cars; nobody wants to have his or her car break down in the middle of nowhere, or when it is needed the most. The other Japanese brands who were ranked as the best are Mazda, Subaru, Honda, Acura, and Infiniti (Nissan’s luxury brand)—that’s seven out of ten spots. You may be buying a previously-owned car, but if it’s made by one of those automakers, you can be sure to have a vehicle that can outlast even the newest Jaguar model. Jaguar, by the way, ranked as the worst in reliability according to the survey. It may be sleek but it loses out on the road when it breaks down—so you see, it shouldn’t always be about style; a car should actually work as well!
tradecarview Japanese used car

The Car Reliability Survey assessed 90 models from Japanese auto manufacturers, 86 of which were able to achieve an average or higher rating, and of which 35 got the highest points. The Toyota Prius C subcompact hybrid got the highest overall score. The survey is a good source of advice for those who are interested in buying cars whether new or Japanese used cars because the information is gathered from consumers themselves. This means that automobile users and owners gave their experiences with the listed cars, what problems they had with a particular car, and how much they had to spend to have a car repaired. Consumer Reports then tallied the data and created tables and charts to come up with the final rankings. In 2012, over 800,000 people participated in the survey and provided information on over 1.2 million vehicles.

The survey shows that consumers driving Japanese-branded vehicles rarely encountered problems with their vehicles, and if ever their car had to be repaired, the servicing was minimal and the needed parts are easily obtained. Made-in-Japan brands are definitely getting better and better and getting stronger and stronger each year—even the Japanese used cars.
tradecarview


Japanese brands are also a hit in the United Kingdom, where a similar survey showed that the top five brands when it comes to reliability are Honda, Toyota, Lexus, Suzuki, and Subaru. These brands flourished where so many European marques have failed, which is surely embarrassing for the automakers since the UK is their home base, so to speak. To fail in your own market is something the European auto manufacturers should think about so they can catch up with the Japanese standard for reliability.

What do these two surveys show? That Japanese tops other major brands (American, European, Korean) brands when it comes to reliability, and this is a big thing especially if you are buying secondhand. If you’re looking around for a good quality vehicle, choose Japanese used cars—they won’t let you down.


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