Consumer Reports magazine no longer recommends that shoppers buy Toyota Motor Corp.'s top-selling Toyota Camry midsize car and three other vehicles because of poor scores in a new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash test.

The influential magazine's latest reliability survey delivered a blow to Ford Motor Co. Scores on nearly two-thirds of the 34 Ford and Lincoln models were rated 'much worse than average' by respondents to the annual survey. Jake Fisher, the magazine's head of auto testing, said Monday that problems with infotainment systems and transmissions hurt Ford among owners surveyed by the magazine.

'Two or three years ago, Ford was up there with the Japanese competition,' Mr. Fisher said. But in the magazine's 2013 reliability survey, the Ford brand ranked 27th out of 28 brands surveyed, just ahead of BMW AG's last-place Mini.

The top-ranked brand in the survey of 'predicated reliability' was Toyota's Lexus, followed by Toyota's namesake brand and Honda Motor Co.'s Acura luxury brand. Volkswagen AG's Audi brand moved to fourth place.

Consumer Reports' decision to drop its recommendation for the Camry was a surprise because the sedan, the best-selling car in the U.S. this year, has long been a favorite of the magazine's readers and editors.

Consumer Reports has eight million subscribers and doesn't accept advertising. Auto makers covet recommendations from the magazine as a way to stand out from the crowd.

The recently redesigned Camry was one of four vehicles Consumer Reports dropped from its recommended list after scoring poorly on the Insurance Institute's small offset crash. The others are the Toyota RAV 4, the Toyota Prius V and the Audi A4.

Toyota said in a statement that the company is 'looking at a range of solutions to achieve greater crash performance.'

Mr. Fisher said Toyota plans to retest the Camry in December, and a spokesman for the Insurance Institute confirmed that the company has asked for a retest in December and is making engineering changes to the car.

An Audi spokesman said company engineers have taken the A4's results from the IIHS crash test and are working to make improvements in the near future on the brand's cars.

Consumer Reports' harsh assessment of Ford's new-vehicle reliability was the latest in a series of unflattering reviews of the No. 2 U.S. auto maker's new technology from independent quality rating groups.