Most reliable American car makes and models?

Looking to buy brand new. For daily driving. Preferably 4 door mid-size or compact. Use to drive Nissan and Honda but considering American if good idea.

The Chevy Malibu has quickly (and surprisingly) shot up recommended lists because of its combination of value and reliability. The Ford Fusion is also a highly recommended car. The Chevy Cruze has garnered much praise, and should be a good car. The Focus and smaller Festiva also are good cars. Given the choice, I would go with the mid-sized cars over the compacts though. I would not trust Chrysler at this time. They have some great looking products, but they have a troubled history and the small/midsize cars are Fiat-based and Fiat has had poor reliability as of late. If I were you, my short list of Americans would be the Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion.

Ford and lincoln are most reliable.

I believe Ford Focus made consumer reports in the past.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/06/5-best-used-cars-for-teen-drivers/index.htm

One report suggested the Pontiac vibe.

But mostly, they like the imports.

All the American automakers are trying really hard to earn back consumers' trust. All of the main automakers have had major recalls, so it's not really fair to single one out as "bad." It depends on what you want and can afford. If you want luxury, Cadillac is still the best American brand. If you want safety and fuel economy, the ford Taurus is good. Subaru is a great brand as well, even though it is not an "American" company, all Subuarus are built at an American factory in Lafayette, IN. You will never find a more reliable, safe, capable car than a subaru. I prefer GM vehicles only because I get an employee discount.

I still do not trust Dodge, but Ford has made some mighty nice cars in the last decade and GM is starting to get with the program. Good design, good economy, good features. I have lost faith in both Nissan and Honda in the last decade (Honda really lost a lot of luster with the failing transmissions in the early 2000s) and Toyota is nice but pricey.

I recommend stopping by the Ford dealer, talking to a salesman about the models and what they have in inventory, how they would fit your wants and needs. Then get the salesman's card and thank him for his time and you hope to be back soon. Feel free to do the same at the GM dealer (mostly Chevy now). Give yourself time to think about the models and the options and do some research. I buy mostly used cars so I rely on the two sources a lot, but they are good indicators of what you will see with new cars too. In the second one, 50% bad reviews is horrible and 10% is great.

Ford did major quality improvements over the past few years and has now caught up with the foreign makes. Chrysler is still at the bottom but is also working on it thanks to Fiat. Not sure what GM is doing.

It doesn't really matter in my opinion because foreign cars are now built in the US by American workers and most American cars contain 80%+ foreign built parts and the cars themselves are assembled in Canada or Mexico. It makes the term "buying foreign/american" obsolete.

I drove a Dodge Magnum and a Ford Escape and both of them were good cars, put a lot of miles on them with only one major problem. The Escape was at the dealership for a transmission repair for 2 weeks. No other major problem besides that. Remember that there's not such thing as buying American or foreign in cars anymore. A lot of "foreign" cars are now manufacture in the USA, and lots of "American" cars use parts manufacture in other countries.

Ford