Car Brands - Worst Brands of MY 1990

The Least Reliable and Durable Car Brands of Model Year 1990 by CR's 1996 List of Used Cars to Avoid

This page lists the worst car brands of model year 1990 by two measures, both of which employ Consumer Reports' list of Used Cars to Avoid. Both measures use the 1990 models on the 1996 list of Cars to Avoid, when the 1990 cars were about 5 ½ years old, i.e., in the age range 5-to-6 years old. 

1990's Worst Car Brands by Share of CR's 1996 list of 1990 Cars to Avoid

The 10 worst car brands of 1990 by share of CR's 1996 list of 1990 Cars to Avoid are listed below, together with their corresponding shares.

  • Chevrolet line, accounting for 18.6% of 1990 Cars to Avoid in 1996
  • Ford line, accounting for 18.6%
  • Dodge line, accounting for 11.8%
  • Pontiac line (now defunct), accounting for 8.5%
  • Chrysler line, accounting for 5.1%
  • GMC line, accounting for 5.1%
  • Oldsmobile line (now defunct), accounting for 5.1%
  • Plymouth line (now defunct), accounting for 5.1%
  • Hyundai line, accounting for 3.4%
  • Jeep line, accounting for 3.4%
The Ford brand leads the list of the worst in model years 1990 (a tie with Chevrolet), 1991, 1992, and 1994.
 
The Chevrolet brand leads the list of the worst in model years 1985, 1986, 1990 (a tie with Ford), 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006.
 
Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Geo, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn are lines of General Motors Corporation. Geo, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn are defunct lines of General Motors Corporation.
 
Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, and Merkur are lines of Ford Motor Company. Mercury and Merkur are defunct lines of Ford Motor Company.
 
Chrysler, Dodge, Eagle, Jeep, and Plymouth are lines of Chrysler Corporation/Chrysler Group/Chrysler LLC. Eagle and Plymouth are defunct.
 
The brands that account for the remaining 15% of 1990 cars on CR's 1996 worst list are Jaguar, Saab, Subaru, Volkswagen, Eagle (now defunct), Geo (now defunct), Lincoln, Mercury (now defunct), and Buick.
 
The following bar graph depicts each brand's share of the 1990 Used Cars to Avoid in 1996 at an approximate age of 5 ½ years.

This is a bar graph of the brand shares of the worst cars of 1990 by CR’s 1996 list of 1990 Used Cars to Avoid. Chart by James Benjamin Bleeker, 20 March 2012.

Note that Ford's share of the worst of 1990 matches Chevrolet's. To see the strides Ford made in quality improvement (relative to General Motors' Chevrolet), see the worst brands of 2006.
 
1990's Worst Car Brands by Number of Brand's 1990 Cars to Avoid Divided by All of Its 1990 Cars Rated in 1996

For this quality measure, we divide the brand's number of 1990 models on CR's 1996 list of Used Cars to Avoid by the number of its 1990 models rated in CR's April 1996 Reliability Tables. This computation is done with the intent to garner a rough estimate as to how likely a brand's models will be among the Cars to Avoid at about 5 ½ years.

The 10 (11 by tie) worst 1990 brands by this quality measure are, in descending order (worst first):

  • Hyundai line, with a quotient value of 2.00 based on 1 rated model
  • Jeep line, with a quotient value of 1.00 based on 2 rated models
  • Jaguar line, with a quotient value of 1.00 based on 1 rated model
  • Saab line, with a quotient value of 1.00 based on 1 rated model
  • Pontiac line (now defunct), with a quotient value of 0.83 based on 6 rated models
  • Chevrolet line, with a quotient value of 0.79 based on 14 rated models
  • Chrysler line, with a quotient value of 0.75 based on 4 rated models
  • Ford line, with a quotient value of 0.61 based on 18 rated models
  • Dodge line, with a quotient value of 0.58 based on 12 rated models
  • Subaru line, with a quotient value of 0.50 based on 2 rated models
  • Volkswgen line, with a quotient value of 0.50 based on 2 rated models
All of the brand quotients for model year 1990 are depicted in the following bar graph, with worst first.

This s a bar graph of 1990’s worst car brands by dividing the number of the brand’s 1990 Cars to Avoid in 1996 by all of its 1990 rated cars in Consumer Reports’ April 1996 Reliability Tables. Chart by James Benjamin Bleeker, 20 March 2012.

The Prizm, a rebadge of the Corolla, is not included in the above computations.
 
Note: A dash between engine sizes doubles entry count in CR's April 1996 list of 1990 Cars to Avoid.
 
Worthy of special mention is that Hyundai went from one of the worst lines (the worst by this measure of quality) to one of the 6 best of 2006.
 
Additional Resources

Best 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 

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

The Best Cars of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1975  1976  1977  1978  1979  1980  1981  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986  ...  2004  2005

The Worst Cars of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1980  1981  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986  ...  2004  2005 

The Best Car Brands of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1985  1986 ...  2004  2005

The Worst Car Brands of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1985  1986 ...  2004  2005

The Best Car Manufacturers of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1985  1986 ...  2004  2005

The Worst Car Manufacturers of Each Model Year by Reliability-Durability GPA: 1985  1986 ...  2004  2005

For additional car quality information, visit www.AutoOnInfo.net and CarsOnInfo.net.

In particular, for additional durability information, see:

http://www.AutoOnInfo.net/SharesOfHighMileageVehicles.aspx 
http://CarsOnInfo.net/ToyotaAgeEquivalents.aspx 
http://CarsOnInfo.net/ToyotaMileageEquivalents.aspx 
http://CarsOnInfo.net/Top25OfAutoonInfosHighMileageRoster.aspx

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