11th Oct 2012, 07:18

In the interest of full disclosure, I have sold 4 of those 5 brands listed, as well as many others including many domestics during a 30 plus year span in the automobile business (now retired).

I must say I agree that all of those brands are very reliable overall, with my personal top choices being (not in any particular order) Toyota, Subaru & Honda, although I have nothing against Mazda or Nissan either (I owned a Pathfinder for 13 trouble-free years, & also love the Miata).

I also believe that many domestics are also very reliable, and wouldn't hesitate to buy any domestic make either (we currently own one GM product and two Chrysler products).

All of that being said, even with the recently announced recall of 7.4 million 2005-2010 Toyotas due to a power window switch issue, which reportedly could result in a fire, I also would not hesitate to purchase a Toyota product at all. I've found Toyotas to be well-built, well engineered vehicles, that despite recent set-backs, are still very good automobiles, and a fine choice for those who find a particular model that fits their needs.

Personally our domestics perfectly fit our needs, however if we were to trade-in our current GM SUV in the future, if we went with an import, I believe we would purchase a Subaru, as my wife has had a couple as loaners when her GM was in for recalls/repairs, and absolutely loved them.

I guess my long-winded point is, there are plenty of wonderfully engineered & built vehicles out there, and lots & lots of fine choices.