US cars are catching up on their Asian rivals

A survey by Consumer Reports said that on average cars made by US firms had 18 faults per 100, against 12 per hundred for Asian marques.

But the US numbers are improving, Consumer Reports said, showing a reduction from 21 the previous year.

And for the first time in 25 years US models came in ahead of European ones, which had an average of 20 faults.

Overtaken

The survey is based on 675,000 responses from readers of Consumer Reports' publications, who are asked to report problems with their cars in 14 different areas.

The results showed that new cars from Japanese marques such as Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Toyota, Acura and Infiniti were the most reliable.

Korean models were also rated highly - and with European brands, filled 30 of the top 33 slots on a league table of "most satisfying" vehicles.

But the Europeans fell down badly on reliability in the survey, falling behind the US makes for the first time since 1979.

All the models in the survey from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar and Land Rover were rated below average.

And for cars that were three years old, the difference between Infiniti, Lexus and Toyota on the one hand, and BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen on the other, was marked.

"They haven't put the attention to detail in their cars," said David Champion, head of Consumer Reports' car test centre.