The 10 Least Reliable Automotive Brands

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Like an illness, poor reliability can be contagious. It spreads throughout a corporation, its brands, and its products.That’s why, every year, Consumer Reports publishes a survey, not only of the vehicles, but of the automotive brands. The magazine contends that brand reliability, for better or worse, is a reflection of corporate philosophy. Companies that nickel and dime their suppliers and those that roll out new technologies too quickly tend to have reliability issues.“Reliability is about taking a conservative approach to new technology,” Jake Fisher, director of auto testing for Consumer Reports, told Design News. “If you take a conservative approach, reliability is better. If not, it’s worse.”Decisions on such matters are often made at the corporate level, causing good or poor reliability to be a corporate-wide phenomenon. That’s why, this year, the top two automotive brands operate under the same corporate umbrella. Not coincidently, so do the bottom two.Here, we offer a peek at the 10 most unreliable vehicle brands, as judged by the owners of more than 640,000 vehicles. Scroll through the slides to see the least reliable nameplates.