Japan's vehicle reliability rankings is on ease

Two other Japanese mainstays, the Toyota Camry and Toyota RAV4, won't be recommended because they flunked a frontal crash test from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Three Japanese brands — Lexus, Toyota and Acura — took the top spots in this year's survey, and seven of the Top 10 brands are Japanese.

The 2014 Subaru Forester got the top score for predicted reliability, but the magazine noted that the 2014 Forester had only been on sale for a few weeks in the spring when owners were surveyed, so there wasn't much time for errors to crop up. The Subaru Legacy was the top-performing midsize car. But three non-Japanese brands — Audi, Volvo and GMC — cracked the Top 10. And the magazine announced Monday it's not recommending that consumers buy 2014 models of the Honda Accord V6 and Nissan Altima sedans, two of Japan's top sellers, because of poor reliability scores. 

The brands that do best, such as Toyota and Honda, often use time-tested engines, transmissions and other parts from prior models in their Japanese used cars for sale, Fisher said. Automakers with new engines or other untested features in their new cars — such as Ford or Cadillac — tend to do worse. The key to reliability is a conservative approach to vehicle redesigns.