Who makes the best cars? Honda is tops, but Ford and GM have improved.

Publication: Consumer Reports

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.

Overall, the best cars sold in the U.S. are made by Honda. That's the conclusion of a recent analysis conducted by CONSUMER REPORTS that looks at the reliability, performance, fuel economy, comfort, interior fit and finish, and ergonomics of 262 vehicles we've recently tested.

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Honda, with an overall score of 78, is followed closely by Toyota (75) and Subaru (72).BMW, Mazda, Nissan, and Volkswagen are tied at 71, after rounding.

Detroit automakers garnered some of the lowest scores, but we have seen some significant signs of improvement in Ford and GM vehicles this past year.

The overall score for each automaker is based on the average overall scores of its vehicles in our road tests and its average predicted-reliability score from our Annual Car Reliability Survey, which details the problems subscribers have experienced with almost 1.3 million vehicles. We included manufacturers only if we tested at least five of their vehicles. See the automaker report cards on the facing page for a summary of each.

Other findings include the following:

* Only two automakers, Honda and Subaru, earned the distinction of having all of the models we tested make our Recommended list. Because we have not yet tested the redesigned Subaru Impreza and WRX, Honda is the only automaker whose entire model lineup is currently recommended.

* Some vehicles that do well in our testing tend to have a relatively high number of problems reported by owners in our reliability survey. For example, vehicles built by Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen (including Audi) achieved the best average scores in our tests. But the reliability of Volkswagen vehicles overall is below average, while Mercedes' reliability is well below average. We don't recommend vehicles with below-average reliability, which limits the number of recommended models for those automakers.

* On the other hand, some vehicles that are very reliable don't post the best scores in our testing. Some Subaru and Toyota models, for example, score midpack or lower in our testing but are very reliable overall.

* Of all the Ford vehicles we've tested, the percentage that we recommend jumped to...

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