Consumer Reports has revealed its list of the top 10 least reliable vehicle models for 2019, and, shocking no one, its filled mostly with cars from American automakers.To evaluate the vehicles, Consumer Reports tests 17 problem areas, including squeaky brakes, broken interior trim, out-of-warranty transmission repairs and four-wheel-drive issues.The severity of each problem is weighted to give a Predicted Reliability Score, cross-referenced with track tests and owner satisfaction survey results to give the final score. Some 420,000 vehicle owners are surveyed in the test.Yes, not unexpectedly, this year a lot of the vehicles at the bottom of the reliability scale are from American and Italian brands, with only a few surprises thrown in.Chevrolet TraverseRight off the bat, the Chevrolet Traverse earned its spot at number 10 on the list by offering poor reliability, but above-average owner satisfaction, it should be noted. You win some, you lose some.Chrysler PacificaNumber nine on the list is one of the few remaining Chrysler-branded vehicles the namesake OEM makes anymore, the Pacifica minivan. With a score of 16, the vehicle received a poor reliability rating and an average owner satisfaction rating.Tesla Model XThe Tesla Model X is next with a score of 15. Perhaps we should not be surprised by Tesla owners’ cult-like devotion to the brand, but despite this poor reliability, the Tesla somehow managed to garner an excellent rating in the Owner Satisfaction department. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this counterintuitive devotion from Tesla owners…Acura MDXOnly one Japanese vehicle made the list, the Acura MDX, with a score of 15. Reliability was found to be poor, and customer satisfaction was also below-average.Volkswagen Atlas and TiguanTwo Volkswagens made the list in the fifth and sixth spots, the Atlas and Tiguan. with a rating of 13 and 15 respectively. Both earned poor reliability scores, and only average owner satisfaction.Alfa Romeo GiuliaAlfa Romeo had to make the list, and it did it this time with the Giulia, and a score of 13. Owner satisfaction was above-average, but reliability was still poor.Jeep WranglerIf youre surprised at number three, you dont know anything about cars. Its the Jeep Wrangler, with a score of 12. Poor reliability ratings, but, again, still an above-average owner satisfaction rating.Chevrolet CamaroSecond from worst is the Chevrolet Camaro with a score of five. Poor reliability ratings didnt stop owners from giving it an excellent satisfaction rating, however. We have a hunch Camaro owners are probably more interested in performance than durability, anyway.Chevrolet ColoradoThe worst offender, according to Consumer Reports’ surveys, is the Chevrolet Colorado, with a reliablility score of just four. Not only was the truck unreliable, owners rated their satisfaction with the vehicle as
Origin: These 10 vehicles are 2019’s least reliable models according to Consumer Reports
2019’s
10 curious storylines to watch from 2019’s first half of Canadian auto sales
This weeks hot Unhaggle deal includes the Ford F-150, GMC Sierra and Ram 1500.Handout / Ford / GMC / Ram Canadian auto sales are down. In fact, Canadian auto sales have been in decline since the early spring of last year, failing to match the prior-year totals in 16 consecutive months.The story is becoming all too familiar; the headlines too easy to write. Automobile manufacturers cant seem to quit the passenger car business fast enough and cant open new SUV assembly plants with any more haste. Premium marques, via products such as the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Lexus UX, are diving downmarket in the hopes of sustaining the last decades conspicuous march into the mainstream. Last years top sellers are this years top sellers. And then theres the unpredictable Tesla, with meaningful volume and a future always in question.Those are the main themes. But in a market thats lost more than 5 percent of its volume through the first half of the year, weve sorted through the numbers to find 10 stories that fill in the blanks. In search of a measure of nuance, these 10 tales are the details well want to look back on in six months time to see how 2019 really turned out.Top Trucks TumbleIn the highly competitive full-size pickup truck arena, the fact that the Ford F-150 hasnt been fully redesigned since the 2015 model year should, theoretically, bode well for freshly redesigned rivals. The Ram 1500, GMC Sierra, and Chevrolet Silverado were all new for the 2019 model year. Yet in a gradually shrinking pickup truck market, Fords full-size pickup truck sales are up 4 percent this year, while the second, third, and fourth-ranked trucks from Ram, GMC, and Chevrolet are sliding. And theyre sliding quite noticeably. The F-Series top challengers are collectively down by more than 7,000 sales so far this year.The Detroit RiverOnce known as The Big Three and now more clearly as The Detroit Three (irrespective of brand origin), General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles produced only 41 percent of all auto sales in Canada during 2019s first six months. Thats down from 43 percent at this stage of 2018, its worse than the market share produced by the trio during the last major recession of a decade ago, and its a far cry from the 53 percent share attributed to the Detroit Three as recently as 2007.Car QuintetThe fact that cars traditional passenger cars the likes of which more than half of all buyers opted for a decade ago are struggling is not news. Barely more than one-quarter of all automobile purchases ends up as a car acquisition. But what amplifies the degree to which cars are now so wholly rejected is the decline of Canadas most popular cars. Through the first half of 2019, Canadas five best-selling cars (Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda3, Volkswagen Golf) are all selling less often than they did a year ago. In fact, the quintet has combined to lose nearly 10,000 sales compared with a year ago.Homegrown SUVsBoth of Canadas two best-selling cars are built right here in Canada. The same can be said in the SUV/crossover sector. The difference, however, is the level of success encountered by Canadian-made SUVs; not just the number one Toyota RAV4 and number two Honda CR-V but by other Canadian-assembled utility vehicles, as well. The RAV4, CR-V, and Ford Edge all rank inside the top 10. Together with the Chevrolet Equinox, Lexus RX, Ford Flex, Lincoln Nautilus, and Lincoln MKT, Canadian-made SUVs account for nearly one-fifth of the SUV market.Monotonous Minivan MinimizingShoppers that in times past were automatically destined to drive away from a new car dealer in a minivan are, just like passenger car buyers, increasingly destined to buy a new three-row crossover. This isnt a new phenomenon, but the rate at which Canadas five-strong minivan lineup is collapsing is now solidly in nosedive mode. Minivan volume plunged 19 percent in calendar year 2018; minivans are down 18 percent this year. That takes these monobox people carriers down to just 3.5 percent of the market. Aside from an uptick in sales of the Kia Sedona (which accounts for less than one-tenth of the segment), each nameplate in the segment is in decline. The Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Grand Caravan, and Honda Odyssey are all down by double-digit percentage losses compared with 2018.Vorsprung Durch OffspringIn Audis showrooms, the student has become the teacher. Audis A4 lineup goes back generations, all the way to the mid-90s B5 generation of which nearly 1.7 million were built. In 2007, the A4 made possible an Audi coupe/convertible range called the A5. As time wore on, it became clear that the two-door market was evolving. Thus, the launch of the second-generation A5 spawned a direct A4 rival called the A5 Sportback, a liftback four-door A5 that, as it turns out, helps to make the A5 far more popular than ever. In fact, the car that Audi spun off from the A4 to incrementally add premium passenger car sales is now
Origin: 10 curious storylines to watch from 2019’s first half of Canadian auto sales
The woman leading Ford’s EV revolution: 2019’s Great British Women in the Car Industry – Rising Stars winner
Not many Ford employees can claim to have in their possession one of its earliest cars. But Emma King, winner of this year’s Great British Women in the Car Industry – Rising Stars initiative, is the proud owner of not only a 1904 Model A but a 1916 Model T tourer. King’s day-to-day job couldn’t be further away from the historic vehicles she’s so fond of. As senior purchasing manager for EV battery cells, King is at the forefront of Ford’s dramatic modernisation plan, which includes an $11 billion investment in electric vehicles by 2022. We’ll first see a Mustang-inspired electric SUV next year. Ford, which has broadly been considered behind the curve with electrification, must now catch up and prove it’s ready for the future after announcing a dramatic restructure, including £14bn of cost savings, earlier this year. King’s role, then, is to ensure Ford has a quality and ample supply of battery cells at the best value possible. King has risen quickly through the ranks of Ford’s purchasing division since joining the firm’s graduate scheme in 2007 as a commercial vehicle buyer at Dunton, Essex. Before her current role, she headed up purchasing for powertrains in Asia-Pacific, based in the Indian city of Chennai. She describes the three-year experience as thoroughly enjoyable and says she got a lot out of it by being open to a very different cultural setting. While there, she was involved with a professional women’s network, looking at developing leadership capabilities and addressing challenges. In a country notorious for gender inequality, she notes: “You have to be sensitive to how the country operates and different expectations of family roles. But women have every right to be there, leading the way.” Last year, King relocated from Chennai to Ford HQ in Dearborn, US. The biggest change? “Chennai is hot and humid all year round, and then I experienced my first Michigan winter. I thought UK winters were cold – they are not.” The other shock was Ford’s early morning meetings: “It’s part of my routine now, but the 6.30am or 7.30am meetings were a surprise! In Chennai, I was used to working way into the evenings. You find very different working practices from region to region.” Not that King is often in Dearborn. Leading a global team of nearly 20 buyers based predominantly in the US and China, she is often on the road in Asia, the US and Europe. “It’s important to get to know your suppliers, and you can achieve a lot in face-to-face meetings,” says King. “It means you are able to assess manufacturing plants and quality but also build personal relationships.” Ford’s purchasing strategy, King says, is a diverse supply base: “Our perspective is that building and maintaining a diverse range of suppliers helps us to lower costs, improve quality and make progress towards our sustainability goals.” She adds that a range of suppliers allows Ford to take into account regional footprints as well as gain access to the latest technologies. Ford’s tactic is to pair purchasing bodies with counterparts in product development to ensure everyone understands what is required. “It means the technology and cost discussion happens together,” explains King. “It is a fact-based negotiation based on a deep understanding of what we’re buying. It isn’t either for best price or best technology, it needs to be both – though, of course, there will be a trade-off.” How do you outdo your rivals in purchasing? “If we’ve done it right, when we launch the products our customers will be as excited as we are from both a technology and price point.” The procurement of EV battery cells is a contentious subject, with plenty of industry debate surrounding the ethics of sourcing raw materials – something of which King is all too aware. She says: “When it comes to battery technology, there are some unique challenges. When we look at sourcing batteries, the chain is really complex. It is heavily dominated by raw materials and you have to be careful about extraction methods and human working conditions. “My team looks at the mining of base metals, which helps us to identify cost opportunities and gives us transparency of where material flow is coming from. We need to be able to satisfy ourselves that the material we source is sustainable.” King’s motivation comes from being at the forefront of a fast-paced industry. “I love working in the automotive industry,” she says. “Being right at the front of major technological changes is fantastic. Things don’t stand still in this industry for very long.” King says that consumer uptake of electrified vehicles should mean “a no-compromise solution for what they’re buying”. “Our EVs are going to be inspired by our most iconic products such as Mustang,” she adds. “We’re amplifying the best attributes that we know our customers love – performance, capability, convenience – and building an ecosystem of services that ease the transition into EVs. “My view is that
Origin: The woman leading Ford’s EV revolution: 2019’s Great British Women in the Car Industry – Rising Stars winner
Canada’s 10 most popular luxury vehicles in 2019’s first quarter – it’s an SUV game
2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC 350ePeter Bleakney / Driving It has not proven to be the kind of start many premium auto brands desired. After years of record-breaking performances, some of the most popular luxury brands kicked off 2019 with a whimper. Granted, auto sales on the whole are falling. After five consecutive record years, 2018 volume dipped marginally. Through 2019’s first three months, total industry volume has declined by more than 4 per cent. Plunging car sales and slowing pickup truck momentum deserve some of the blame, but decreased demand for many of Canada’s favourite premium-badged vehicles plays a significant role, as well. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi – Canada’s three top-selling premium auto brands – combined to lose 3,750 sales in 2019’s first quarter, a year-over-year drop worsened by decreases at Acura, Alfa Romeo, Lincoln, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Maserati. In total, premium brand auto sales are down by nearly 7 per cent. With no manufacturer-supplied monthly reports from Tesla, it’s difficult to obtain firm figures for the Model 3. Based on data from Canada EV Sales, Model 3 demand plummeted following Ontario’s rebate removal, from a high of 1,540 Ontario sales alone to merely 49 in January. For the time being then, there’s no Model 3 on this list of Canada’s 10 top-selling luxury vehicles in 2019’s first-quarter. With sales reports from the Global Automakers of Canada, these are Canada’s luxury leaders so far this year. 10. Infiniti QX60: 1,159, up 41 per cent No vehicle on this list has gone longer without a major redesign than the QX60, which debuted as the JX35 in early 2012. The QX60 has consistently been Canada’s favourite Infiniti despite the fact that it only partially veils its proletarian Pathfinder underpinnings. Yet having never topped 5,000 sales in the past, Infiniti is on track for over 6,100 QX60 sales in 2019. Infiniti’s other utility vehicles combined for a 16-percent uptick in Q1. 9. BMW X1: 1,283, up 2 per cent There’s no shortage of competition for the X1 right inside BMW’s showroom, but X1 sales continue to rise. Including the X1 and its X2 offshoot, sales of BMW’s two smallest utility vehicles are up 28 per cent so far this year. The duo combines to produce more than one-fifth of the brand’s Canadian volume. Gone are the days when BMW’s 3 Series was Canada’s top-selling premium automobile – the 3er only ranks fourth in BMW’s own lineup. 8. Acura RDX: 1,518, down 3 per cent Not likely to remain in the red, the new third-generation Acura RDX is just exiting the transition phase and is likely to soon see positive forward sales momentum. The RDX is hugely important to Acura, which has seen its car sales slow to a trickle (the RDX outsells Acura’s entire car lineup by a wide margin) and suffered meaningful MDX decline, as well. 7. BMW X5: 1,521, up 25 per cent On track for a huge year of more than 8,000 sales, the X5 is the most costly vehicle on this list of best sellers. Pricing begins above $70,000 – none of the others even start above $60,000. Yet the X5 is now producing significantly more sales than similarly sized mainstream SUVs like the Nissan Pathfinder, GMC Acadia, and Subaru Ascent. X5 demand was not slowed by the arrival of the larger X7 in March. BMW Canada reported its first 180 X7 sales while X5 volume jumped 30 per cent to 504 units. 6. Lexus NX: 1,544, down 2 per cent Anyone who thought the NX’s face was too controversial for mainstream success was, evidently, wrong. So common is the NX half a decade into its tenure that its divisive face is now almost normal. Nearly 30,000 NXs have found their way into Canadian driveways since 2014. Even if the current pace of modest decline continues in 2019, Lexus will still likely add over 5,500 more NXs to the tally by year’s end. 5. Lexus RX: 1,635, down 0.2 per cent Perennially a U.S. luxury sales leader, the Lexus RX remains popular in Canada despite a recent loss of momentum. The RX was long Lexus’ most affordable utility vehicle. Now, two nameplates – the NX and new UX – sit beneath the RX. Lexus has nevertheless expanded the RX lineup to include a three-row RX L, and that vehicle could swing the tide in the RX’s favour. March volume, for example, was up 20 per cent. 4. Mercedes-Benz C-Class: 1,640, down 35 per cent There is but one passenger car on this list of Canada’s 10 top-selling luxury vehicles. This is it. You won’t find the BMW 3 Series here, nor the Audi A4. Meanwhile, C-Class sales are plunging along with sales of its traditional rivals. A4 volume is down 40 per cent this year; 3 Series sales are down 38 per cent. The C-Class is outselling both, combined. 3. BMW X3: 1,653, down 14 per cent Although BMW is currently producing over 200 monthly Canadian sales with its specialty utility vehicles – the X2, X4, and X6 – the brand’s first forays into the luxury SUV market remain the most popular. With its X3, now in its third generation, BMW builds Canada’s third-best-selling premium
Origin: Canada’s 10 most popular luxury vehicles in 2019’s first quarter – it’s an SUV game
Canada’s 10 Worst-Selling Vehicles In 2019’s First Quarter
2019 Fiat 500 1957 EditionHandout / Fiat In part due to massive marketing campaigns, many Canadians know the Ford F-Series has been Canada’s best-selling truck line for 53 years, and that the Honda Civic has been Canada’s best-selling car for 21 consecutive years. Fewer will know that the Fiat 500L is on track to end 2019 as Canada’s worst-selling vehicle. Such a statement doesn’t lend itself to a radio jingle or high-energy television commercial. Canada’s most popular vehicles are ascendant. In a declining pickup truck market, F-Series sales are rising, driving Ford’s share of the full-size pickup market beyond 40 per cent. Despite a marginal downturn, the Honda Civic’s share of Canada’s car market is now above 13 per cent, up from 8 per cent a decade ago. Then there’s this group of Canada’s worst-selling vehicles, 13 nameplates that attracted 240 buyers in the first three months of 2019, or roughly the number of Civics sold by Honda Canada every day in March. It’s not just by the standards of Canada’s leading automobiles that these vehicles are embarrassingly uncommon. The Audi Q8, a decidedly premium SUV that is only in its launch phase, is twice as popular as these 13 vehicles combined. Canada’s top-selling premium vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz GLC, has a base price near $50,000, yet it generates 10 times the volume of these worst sellers. All of these worst sellers combined don’t produce as much volume as the Porsche 911, or Kia Stinger, or the $110,300 Lexus LX570. To determine the worst-selling vehicles in Canada in the first quarter of 2019, we narrowed the list of qualified vehicles to include nameplates with base prices under $100,000, excluded vehicles that weren’t on sale at the beginning of 2019, excluded two-seaters, and removed vehicles that had received their official cancellation papers. Vehicles that haven’t found a single buyer are deemed dead in the water, even if only temporarily, and are also given a reprieve. On the whole, these rules eliminate most vehicles that are automatically destined to be low-volume products in Canada. With figures from the Global Automakers of Canada, these are Canada’s 10 worst-selling vehicles in 2019’s first three months. T10. Fiat 500, Volvo S90, Jaguar XF What do a stoic Swede, a forgotten Brit, and a formerly beloved Italian have in common? Their level of Canadian unpopularity is identical, and sufficient to place them on this list of Canada’s worst-selling vehicles in 2019’s first quarter. The Fiat 500 is down 56 per cent, year-over-year, but that tells only a part of the story – Canadians initially snapped up 700+ Cinquecentos per month. The Volvo S90 is lost in a sea of tailgated Volvos – the company’s SUVs and wagons generate 85 per cent of its Canadian sales. The XF is par for the course at Jaguar these days: a sedan that never fared well now struggling to maintain any semblance of desirability in a market gone mad for luxury SUVs. T8. Maserati Ghibli: 29, down 24 per cent The Ghibli was initially Maserati’s route into the mainstream of Canada’s luxury market. While the Quattroporte and GranTurismo stuck to the very high-end clientele, the Ghibli would begin to reach downmarket. Relatively speaking, of course. That job is now the job of an SUV, the Levante. Just as the Ghibli found it a challenge, so too does the Levante. Sales of every Maserati are nosediving in 2019, from the Quattroporte’s 57-percent drop to the 91-percent GranTurismo decline, the Ghibli’s 24-percent decrease, and the Levante’s 25-percent downturn. T8. Jaguar XJ: 29, down 69 per cent Jaguar is now not so different from its Land Rover partner brand. Land Rover produces all of its sales from SUVs. Jaguar, a brand that only launched its first utility vehicle three years ago, is already at 82 per cent. The XJ is Jaguar’s longest-running nameplate and Jaguar’s flagship, but it’s also the brand’s least popular model. It’s part of a Jaguar car lineup that’s lost nearly two-thirds of its volume, year-over-year, in 2019. 7. BMW 6 Series: 27, down 69 per cent To be fair, two of the three 6 Series body styles hit the market with MSRPs well beyond our $100,000 maximum. But the 6 Series Gran Turismo is a sub-$80K car, and a scarcely seen one at that. BMW brought back the 6 moniker in 2012. Despite its challenging design statement, it proved to be a relatively successful venture for such a high-end coupe/cabriolet. BMW Canada averaged nearly 500 annual sales for the first half-decade. 6. Infiniti Q70: 18, up 13 per cent In 2019, it’s not easy to sell an upmarket sedan even if it’s a known entity; a once-beloved premium statement maker such as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class or BMW 5 Series. Imagine then what it’s like to try to sell an Infiniti Q70, a car that’s largely been ignored – and hence unknown – since it operated as the Infiniti M. Fewer than 2,400 have been in Canada sold over the last decade. 5. Lincoln MKT: 16, down 45 per cent The Canadian-built, Ford Flex-related,
Origin: Canada’s 10 Worst-Selling Vehicles In 2019’s First Quarter
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