A year ago, Ford was riding high as the most-reliable U.S. automaker - 10th place overall among 28 major nameplates, including tough competition from Asian and European automakers as well as domestic brands. In fact, the big news last October from Consumer Reports' closely watched annual survey of brand reliability was that General Motors was doing better - just not quite up there with Ford.

The big news today from Detroit is a warning shot for Ford: It sunk from 10th to 20th place in Consumer Reports' rankings of the the projected reliability of 2012 models, based on surveys collected from owners of 1.3 million vehicles.

Chrysler, long an also-ran in CR's reliability survey, scored a coup this year: Its Jeep brand moved up seven spots to rank 13th in overall reliability, best among U.S. brands. Chrysler itself ranked 15, up 12 spots. (Click here to see all the results.)

Despite Toyota's well-publicized troubles, Japanese brands once again led the rankings, taking the top nine spots and led by Scion, Lexus, Acura, Mazda, Honda, and Toyota.   Volvo was the only European brand to crack this year's top 10. At the other end of the spectrum: "Jaguar, Porsche, and Audi are at the bottom among brands for which we have sufficient data," CR says.

CR, published by the nonprofit Consumers Union, says Ford's biggest problem this year is that new versions of its Explorer, Fiesta, and Focus all had below-average reliability in their first year - more evidence of the risks posed by new models to any automaker.

“We have often found that new or revamped models have more problems in their first year than in subsequent model years. Ford’s problems illustrate why we recommend to our subscribers to hold off buying a first-year model,” David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ auto test center.

The same phenomenon dinged Honda, whose redesigned Odyssey minivan ranked below average, and plagued Porsche, which dropped from second-best brand in last year's CR survey to this year's second-worst "because CR has data for only two models, one of which, the redesigned Cayenne SUV, had a terrible debut year."

Ironically, Champion praised Ford last year for dodging the redesign bullet: "Ford has put its emphasis on fine-tuning existing platforms and limiting the number of new-model introductions,” Champion said then.

CR blamed Ford's fall largely on "problems with new technologies" - especially "the new MyFord Touch infotainment system and the new automated-manual transmission used in the Fiesta and Focus."   Even Ford's luxury brand, Lincoln, which finished above Ford, "suffered from the MyLincoln Touch system," the magazine said. "On the bright side, the Ford Fusion Hybrid sedan remained outstanding, and other Fusion versions were above average."

In an emailed statement, Bennie Fowler, Ford group vice president, said Consumer Reports' survey, like similar findings earlier this year in the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality Survey, reflected a temporary problem:

We are pleased that a number of Ford vehicles – including the Ford Fusion – earned top quality ratings this week. As we said when J.D. Power issued similar results this past summer, we take all customer feedback seriously and will use it to continuously improve our vehicles. Continuous improvement ensures that we are providing our customers with the highest-quality vehicles.

Our internal surveys now show that we are largely back on track after addressing these near-term quality issues. We remain absolutely committed to serving our customers with cars and trucks that have the highest quality, reliability, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design and value.

Jeep's relative success in the CR survey reflected a narrow clustering of its vehicles: CR said all the Jeep models for which it has sufficient data scored average in reliability. Some other survey highlights:

• Many hybrids are proving extremely reliable. The top two models in our survey are the Lexus CT 200h and Honda CR-Z. The Toyota Prius was among the top models, rebounding from brake problems that plagued the current design.
• The gas/electric Chevrolet Volt, with much better than average predicted reliability, ranks as GM's most reliable car but with a caveat: The sample size was just a little more than our minimum threshold of 100 cars, and most respondents had owned theirs for only a few months.
• Family sedans hold up well overall and are led by the Ford Fusion Hybrid. All of the models for which we have data have at least average reliability. In contrast, only one minivan makes that cut: The front wheel-drive Toyota Sienna is average.
• Heavy-duty, three-quarter-ton pickups are among the most problematic vehicles. With the exception of the turbodiesel Ford F-250, they all scored below average.

You can find more detail on the CR survey here, and model-specific information at www.consumerreports.org, though mostly behind a pay wall. If you're wondering about CR's methodology, here's what it says:

Findings are based on responses on 1.3 million vehicles owned or leased by subscribers to Consumer Reports or its Website, www.ConsumerReports.org. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2011 by Consumer Reports’ National Survey Research Center and covered model years 2002 to 2011.

Consumer Reports’ expert team of statisticians and automotive engineers used the survey data to predict reliability of new 2012 models. Predicted reliability is Consumer Reports’ forecast of how well models currently on sale are likely to hold up. To calculate predicted-reliability ratings, CR averages the overall reliability scores (used car verdicts) for the most recent three model years, provided that the model remained unchanged in that period and also didn’t substantially change for 2012. If a model was new or redesigned in the past couple of years, one or two years’ data may be used, or if that’s all that’s available. On rare occasions, Consumer Reports makes predictions for a newly redesigned model, but only if previous versions had outstanding reliability.