The 7 Most Reliable and Durable Car Brands of Model Year 1987 

This page lists the top seven car brands (as well as the Top 10 and Top 15 car brands) of model year 1987 by reliability-and-durability grade point average (Reliability-Durability GPA or more concisely, R-D GPA).

1987's Top 7 Car Brands 

These 7 brand leaders of the automobile industry are listed below in descending order of Reliability-Durability GPA (best first), together with their R-D GPAs.

• The Acura line, with a R-D GPA of 3.70
• The Honda line, with a R-D GPA of 3.67
• The Suzuki line, with a R-D GPA of 3.56
• The Toyota line, with a R-D GPA of 3.12
• The Mercedes-Benz line, with a R-D GPA of 2.94
• The Mazda line, with a R-D GPA of 2.87
• The Volvo line, with a R-D GPA of 2.80

Note that in 1987 none of the Detroit manufacturers has a car brand among the Top 7.

The following chart gives each nation's percent share of the 7 most reliable and durable brands of 1987.

Japan: 70%
Germany: 20%
Sweden: 10%

The next 5 car brands are listed below in descending order of Reliability-Durability GPA (best first).

• The Isuzu line, with a Reliability-Durability GPA of 2.70
• The BMW line, with a Reliability-Durability GPA of 2.41
• The Lincoln line, with a Reliability-Durability GPA of 2.29
• The Subaru line, with a Reliability-Durability GPA of 2.02
• The Porsche line, with a Reliability-Durability GPA of 1.98

The following bar graph depicts how much above average the Top 15 car brands of 1987 are. The 15 best are listed in descending order (best first).

To compute the reliability-durability grade point average of the MY 1987 cars, Consumer Reports' reliability ratings for the age range 4-to-5 years are used. For the R-D GPAs for model year 1975 to 1986, Consumer Reports' reliability ratings for the age ranges 4-to-5 years and 5-to-6 years are used. The reason for the difference is that CR did not provide an overall reliability rating (a component in the computation of the Reliability-Durability GPA) for much of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s.

CR's ratings are converted to numerical values following the standard academic pattern: a grade point of 4.0 (an A) is accorded a rating of Much Better Than Average, a 3.0 (a B) is accorded a rating of Better Than Average, a 2.0 (a C) is accorded a rating of Average, a 1.0 (a D) is accorded a rating of Below Average, and a 0 (an F) is accorded a rating of Much Below Average.

Then, the grade point of CR's overall reliability rating is weighted 2/3 and the average of the grade points of the category ratings is weighted 1/3.

Finally, a car brand's Reliability-Durability GPA is computed by taking the average of the Reliability-Durability GPAs of its models.

Best and Worst Car Brands of Each Model Year

Worst Car Brands by CR's List of Used Cars to Avoid:  1985  1986  1987  1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006

Best Car Makers by CR's List of Used Cars to Avoid: 1985  1986  1987  1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006

Worst Car Makers by CR's List of Used Cars to Avoid:  1985  1986  1987  1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006