Consumer Reports says Ford's quality slips

DETROIT (AP) -- Consumer Reports says Ford's quality has slipped in the past year because of problems with transmissions and touch-screen systems in some new models.

Ford's quality has stacked up well against Japanese carmakers in recent years, but the brand fell 10 spots to rank 20th out of 28 major brands in the magazine's 2011 auto survey.

The magazine says vehicles from Honda, Toyota and Mazda had the fewest problems. The Chrysler brand showed the biggest improvement in the annual survey, which is widely used by buyers to judge cars and trucks.

Consumer Reports based its findings on responses this spring from subscribers who lease or own 1.3 million vehicles in model years 2002 to 2011. It uses the findings to predict reliability of 2012 models.

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