Auto on Info: Car News and Commentary February 2006: Toyota and Honda Dominate Consumer Reports' 2006 Good Bets List, with Small Changes from 2005

Toyota and Honda Dominate Consumer Reports' 2006 Good Bets List, with Small Changes from 2005

Toyota Motor Corporation's car and truck models are again the most prevalent on Consumer Reports' Good Bets list for used car selection. The auto manufacturer accounts for 33.9% of the models on the 2006 list (vs. 35.2% on the 2005 list) - 24.2% (vs. 25.9% in 2005) are from the Toyota line and 9.7% (vs. 9.3% in 2005) are from the Lexus line.

The criteria for CR's 2006 Good Bets are (1) better-than-average reliability over several or more years between 1998 and 2005 and (2) good performance on CR's road tests over the years.

Honda Motor Company's car and truck models are the second most prevalent on the CR's 2006 Good Bets list. They account for 22.6% (vs. 20.4% in 2005) of the models on the list - 14.5% (vs.11.1% in 2005) are from the Honda line and 8.1% (vs. 9.3% in 2005) are from the Acura line.

Together, Toyota and Honda models account for 56.5% of all models on the 2006 Good Bets list, a tad larger than the 55.6% in 2005.

The following table provides each manufacturer's percentage and number of entries on CR's 2006 Good Bets list, save that the two rebadges marketed by General Motors are omitted from GM's number and from the total used for the computation of the percentages. With the two rebadges eliminated from the count, the percentages below differ a bit from those above.

Those models by Toyota Motor Corporation that are in CR's 2006 Good Bets list appear in the following table.

Models by Toyota Motor Corporation in CR's 2006 Good Bets List
Lexus Line
	ES300,ES330
	GS300/GS400,GS430
	IS300
	GX470
	LS400,LS430
	RX300,RX330
Toyota Line
	4Runner
	Avalon
	Camry
	Camry Solara
	Celica
	Corolla
	Echo
	Highlander
	Land Cruiser
	Matrix
	Prius
	RAV4
	Sequoia
	Sienna
	Tundra

The next table provides links to reviews of the 2005 model-years of some of the above models.

Links to On-Site Reviews of Toyota Motor Corporation's 2005 Editions of Its Entries on CR's 2006 Good Bets List of Used Cars and Trucks
2005 Lexus ES 330	2005 Lexus IS 300	2005 Lexus GX 470

2005 Lexus LS 430	2005 Lexus RX 330	2005 Toyota 4Runner

2005 Toyota Camry	2005 Toyota Celica	2005 Toyota Corolla

2005 Toyota Echo	2005 Toyota Highlander	2005 Toyota Land Cruiser

2005 Toyota Matrix	2005 Toyota Prius	2005 Toyota RAV4

2005 Toyota Sienna	2005 Toyota Tundra

Those models by Honda Motor Company that are in CR's 2006 Good Bets list appear in the following table.

Models by Honda Motor Company in CR's 2006 Good Bets List
Acura Line
	Integra
	MDX
	RL
	RSX
	TL
Honda Line
	Accord
	Civic
	Civic Hybrid
	CR-V
	Element
	Odyssey
	Pilot
	Prelude
	S2000

The next table provides links to reviews of the 2005 model-years of some of the above models.

Links to On-Site Reviews of Honda Motor Company's 2005 Editions of Its Entries on CR's 2006 Good Bets List of Used Cars and Trucks
2005 Acura MDX	2005 Acura RSX	2005 Acura TL

2005 Honda Accord EX	2005 Honda Civic Si 2-door hatchback	2005 Honda Civic coupe and sedan

2005 Honda Civic hybrid	2005 Honda CR-V	2005 Honda Pilot

The following table provides each manufacturer's share of those models that are listed on CR's 2006 Good Bets list and that satisfy the several Reliability Percentrank average criteria.

Shares of Consumer Reports' 2006 Good Bets for Model Years 1998-2005 with Selected 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank Averages, by Auto Manufacturer and Motor Vehicle Line
Manufacturer		Share of CR 2006 Good Bets with a 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank Average¹ Greater Than or Equal to .80	Share of CR 2006 Good Bets with a 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank Average¹ Greater Than or Equal to .85	Share of CR 2006 Good Bets with a 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank Average¹ Greater Than or Equal to .90	Share of CR 2006 Good Bets with a 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank Average¹ Greater Than or Equal to .95
	Vehicle Line
Toyota		.48	.52	.57	.83
	Lexus	.13	.16	.22	.33
	Toyota	.35	.35	.35	.50
Honda		.28	.29	.26	.17
	Acura	.10	.13	.09	0.00
	Honda	.18	.16	.17	.17
Subaru		.10	0.00	0.00	0.00
Nissan		.12	.16	.13	0.00
	Infiniti	.07	.10	.13	0.00
	Nissan	.05	.06	0.00	0.00
Mazda		.02	.03	.04	0.00
Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, and all others		0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
¹ If the vehicle model is too new for a 1997-2001 Reliability Percentrank average to exist, the early 2002 Reliability Percentrank is used when such exists.
All shares are rounded to two significant digits.
CR Good Bets are models that have three or more model years between 1998 and 2005 of better-than-average reliability and have performed well on Consumer Reports' road tests. An auto Reliability Percentrank is a measure of relative overall reliability used by Auto on Info.
Note: Two rebadges of products engineered by Toyota, but sold by another auto manufacturer, are omitted from the latter's share.
Source for Consumer Reports' Good Bets: "CR Good Bet: The Best of Both World's," Consumer Reports Cars: Used Car Buying Guide 2006, p. 25
Source for Reliability Percentrank averages: Table I-MVRP

Source for CR's 2006 Good Bets: "CR Good Bet: The Best of Both World's," Consumer Reports Cars: Used Car Buying Guide 2006, p. 25