An engineer with more than 35 years' experience in the automotive industry has named Subaru and Mazda as the two most reliable car brands in the world. David Chao ranked a number of well-known brands by reliability, from best to worst, placing the two Japanese manufacturers in the elite “S” tier of his list.
Japanese brands dominate the top tiers
Chao placed four Japanese brands among the best, including Toyota and Honda. He said Toyota’s new product introduction (NPI) process is “one of the best in the world”. NPI is the process by which a product is taken from concept to a market-ready model.
Honda, meanwhile, has a “world-class” engineering capability, despite its smaller size, and boasts a “robust” product development. He placed Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Porsche in the second-to-top “A” tier of his list.
Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and BMW followed in the B category. Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Ford and Tesla were placed in C, while Stellantis came last in D. General Motors is behind brands including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac, while Stellantis owns Citroën, Vauxhall, Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep.
Why Mazda and Subaru came top
Speaking to auto consultant Shari Prymak on the Car Help Corner YouTube channel, Chao said he carried out a full audit of the “exterior quality” of the Mazda CX-5, a process he has been completing across all the firm's products. He said: “If you look at the manufacturing, their capability, it's actually one of the best in the world. Their system, the process, their equipment and design is unlike any other manufacturing that Toyota or Honda have.”
He said its manufacturing and engineering capability is “probably the best in the world”, and that he would “give it S for super good”. He cautioned, however, that this does not necessarily “translate to long-term reliability”. He added that, unlike Toyota or Honda, Mazda cannot “pump out a lot of cars”, noting the firm has two factories in Japan and one in Mexico, with none in the US or Canada. As a result, individual plants have to build multiple models on the same production lines.
Subaru's collaboration with Toyota
Chao pointed out that Subaru has been collaborating with Toyota on some vehicles in recent times, including the Subaru BRZ, with Toyota holding a 20 per cent minority stake in the brand. He said Toyota’s engineering has carried over to Subaru, a firm he believes has “gone really good” in recent years.
Similarly, Subaru is not a large firm, meaning it will have to “borrow capability” from Toyota, said Chao. He awarded the company's product development a “solid A, maybe A minus”, as it is taking them a “long time” to develop independently and must “rely” on Toyota. Yet the manufacturing capability and quality have been “really good”, dubbing it “very reliable”.
