The Toyota Prius took top honors

One more myth gets shattered.

A Hyundai is third?!? Times have changed! Nice to hear my Camry won't be falling apart anytime soon. (the lemonade writeup wasn't very promising).

I remember reading/hearing that the plant location was of some importance. Camrys made in the US plants weren't as well made as the Japanese ones but this report doesn't give greater insight into this aspect.

Definitely shatters the myth about hybrids not being reliable.

jack and toyo;

I agree with you. The myth was created by non-hybrid manufacturers such as Mercedes, BMW, Nissan, the Big etc. However, is it also because those hybrids are produced by Toyota?

The Sonata in third place, that's a huge (welcomed) step forward from a few years ago.

Well it definitely has to do with the fact that it's made by Toyota. There are no hybrids from other manufacturers in that top five list.

Toyota has shown to everyone (with the Prius) that hybrids can be very reliable. Toyota shattered the myth. That doesn't mean all hybrids automatically will be reliable, but simply that Toyota's hybrids are likely to be very reliable.

I’ve always wondered why the Prius always does so well in the Consumers Reports ratings. Since the Prius is far more complex with more parts than a gas only Corolla or Camry, how can it possibly be more reliable? It obviously shouldn’t be so reliable unless Toyota has somehow repealed the 2nd law of Thermodynamics.

The only two possible answers are that Toyota is doing extra QC on Prius parts and assembly, or that owners are not critically/honestly assessing these cars since they WANT them to be wonderful in every way. I’d bet the answer is a combination of extra QC by Toyota and less critical owners. But the largest statistical problem with the CR auto survey has always been the “biased” sample group of CR readers. CR subscribers are not even close to a random sample of the US population at large.

Yukaburbahoe,
The Prius has significantly less complexity than your average car, in hardware. There are (AFAIK) no transaxles nor even a transmission (the engine and motor are mated directly to the front axle).

Also, with regenerative braking, the brake pads wear out at a rate 1/3 of other cars (think not just the pads, but the entire brake assembly takes much less wear).

So right off the bat, you never have to change your transmission, and will have brake issues 1/3 as often.

That said, the complexity has moved more to the software, which I'm sure they've tested the sh*t out of. Of course, you did have the issues with the 04 (first year of model) Prius shutting down unexpectedly... that's a software issue. Haven't heard much about that lately, they must've fixed the problems.