Consumer Reports has released their 2020 Brand Report Card Rankings. To be a top recommendation, a vehicle must score well in road tests, predicted reliability, owner satisfaction and safety.
Toyota led brands again for the third consecutive year with having four top vehicle picks: the Corolla, Prius, Avalon and Supra models.
Here’s the second tier (losers):
Poor Cadillac duking it out with the perennial also-rans.
From autonews.com:
The acclaim was perceived by some as a major coup for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who eschews the traditional advertising that costs major automakers billions. Many car buyers consult Consumer Reports for big-ticket purchases because it’s built a reputation for thorough and meticulous testing. The organization buys all the vehicles it tests and doesn’t accept any marketing dollars from manufacturers.
Note: This is not primarily a reliability ranking; it’s a ranking of cars and brands based on road tests, predicted reliability, owner satisfaction and safety. That’s quite different.
There are now three Model 3’s in my parking garage, out of about twenty.
The Model X has suddenly become all the rage with wealthy Chinese. Yesterday, I saw three of them driving in a line. All the luxury, or semi-luxury with ICE are sitting at the dealer’s floor.
The Audi has a $4000 discount now. It’s competing directly with the Model 3.
Tesla is going gangbusters.
Wait a few years, guaranteed they will be gone. You heard it here first.
Not very happy to see Acura’s ranking. The new Honda CEO has said that the company needs to address quality issues. Let’s hope he means business.
Genesis has started off really strong, huh.
Seems the American manufacturers have a lot of catching up to do, at least by CR’s standards.
They only care about pick up trucks. They are low technology with fat profits.
The Ford F-Series, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator feature overhead-cam, turbocharged fours and V-6s, 10-speed automatics and aluminum-alloy bodies. That’s hardly low-tech.
The only low tech pickup trucks are the Tundra/Taco and the ancient Frontier. Everything else is way ahead of those dinosaurs.
I don’t think jeep is treated fairly . What do people do with their jeeps, they use them hard and put them away wet
They launch boats , drive them on the beach rock climb ect.
Compare a jeep to a Porsche garage queen and there is obviously no comparison .
Hmmm.
I rather suspect the Jeep Death Wobble lawsuit had an adverse impact on Keep owners satisfaction levels.
https://www.motor1.com/news/364948/jeep-wrangler-death-wobble-fix/
Add me to the list of those shocked by Acura’s low standing… and disappointed for Cadillac. They are going to have to make some truly exceptional EV’s in the next decade to turn themselves around and get to the top of the mountain , and they are apparently starting from the bottom of the ocean.
The “death wobble” affects the Wrangler only and then mainly if you modify it significantly or never do any maintenance. I’l wager than 99% of Jeep owners of any model other than Wrangler have never even heard of it as well as a large percentage of Wrangler owners as well. Even if it’s a problem for an owner and they want to sell their Wrangler they then get some of the, if not THE, best resale value of any vehicle. I don’t think CR sees the same attraction in a Wrangler as many/most owners do. Objectively it’s not a great “car”, but owning a Wrangler is very much a subjective purchase and once that’s factored in, it’s a marvelous vehicle.
I agree. The Porsches are garage-kept because they’re too ugly to be seen in on the road. Launch some boats, climb some rocks and skip a thousand dollar* oil change and then compare results.
*Not the actual price. Probably.
As I said below in another comment, this is not primarily a reliability ranking. It’s based on road tests, safety, customer satisfaction and predicted reliability. It’s a basis for recommending cars on these criteria.
I’m from Europe so I’ve never actually read CR, but your point does not really fit:
– Reliability: Hopefully manufacturers design their cars to suits the cars’ use, so Porsches should be designed to handle more track days than Jeeps, while Jeeps in turn should be designed to tow more trailers without issue and so on.
– Customer satisfaction: Unbiased
– Road tests: Surely CR evaluates the competencies of the two brands differently?
– Safety: Unbiased
So really, there shouldn’t be that much difference if both cars are as good as billed. Even if Jeep is unfairly rated for reliability that does not explain the difference in summed score.
99% of jeep drivers are teenage girls and wanna be macho men
Fiat dead last, yikes! Still love mine.
Noteworthy that a Korean brand, Genesis, beats all but Porsche. A milestone.
I’d like to see an objective chart generated by CR that shows where the middle brand and the worst brand today ranks compares to the published 2010, 2000, and 1990 charts. There are EXTREMELY few cars (if any) today that I would have much concern about them not getting me to where I want to go with virtually no trip preparation.
Very good point, IMO.
Jim, this is not just a CR reliability ranking; from the text: To be a top recommendation, a vehicle must score well in road tests, predicted reliability, owner satisfaction and safety.
Predicted reliability is just on facet.
This is just CR ranking their recommended cars and brands based on all of these factors.
Thanks, I’m sure I read that and then put it out of my mind…I don’t subscribe to CR so am not aware how they weight these different parameters to get the final results. I’ll re-issue the comment the next time we run the reliability rankings!
I wonder if they are doing this (this is new-ish, right?) due to “reliability” being pretty universal these days. Safety is kind of getting there as well but I wouldn’t mind seeing a crash test of the worst scoring Full Size Pickup or SUV vs the top scoring hatchback or better yet, CUV. It’s a little off topic but I don’t think anyone’s ratings are on an absolute scale, i.e. a compact CUV may be highly rated for safety but that’s only compared to others in the same class, not the market as a while. That accident in Missouri last week of a new Odyssey vs what looked like an F250 was horrifying.
Actually CR has been doing this for quite a few years. CR is more than just about reliability, although that’s what seems to come top of mind to a lot of folks. Back in the day, their reliability ratings going back some years were the first thing to look at when thinking about a used car.
“I wonder if they are doing this (this is new-ish, right?) due to “reliability” being pretty universal these days.”
I don’t know if I’d complete agree with that statement. I’d agree that new cars today are more problem free then ever before, but there are definitely winners and losers in when it comes to reliability. Read the long term test on C/D’s Alfa Giulia. Also look at CRs reliability stats (which is not what Paul posted) and there is fairly significant differences between brands.
That said, for those that keep there cars for long terms, reliability becomes much more important. Reliability states from reputable sources, such as CR or True Delta, show that there are several brands or particular car models that excel in long term reliability.
Last I looked at CR, they didn’t like the Acura’s infotainment system. I got the base unit, so maybe that’s why I still like mine.
I don’t have much faith in Consumer Reports. That is a capital period.!
Interesting that Hyundai and Kia are so highly ranked, considering the problems they have been having with defective engines and fires.
FAKE NEWS
I’ll wager a slightly-used 1986 Hyundai Excel that none of you could have ever predicted the Koreans could out-Japanese the Japanese.
From what I understand, this is based off a survey sent to Consumer Reports Members.
I wonder how many CC readers are CR subscribers ?
Anyone ? Paul, do you subscribe ?
https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/consumer-reports-car-reliability-faq/
I’ve been a subscriber for 20 years. I use CR as one resource when deciding on an appliance, a car or electronics. I also will check out enthusiast websites for feedback from current owners of a particular item. It’s just a good practice to be an informed consumer. I think a lot of people get butthurt when CR points out shortcomings of their particular flavor of vehicle.
I am surprised how many here didn’t read the what this post was actually about. This was clearly not reliability data only. If one looks at CR’s reliability stats only, this list would be different. Typically Lexus is the top brand with Toyota also near the top as well. This has been very consistent for many years. I do read CR (not a subscriber), and I think their reliability stats are worthwhile, certainly much more so than other sources. I used them when I car shop. However, IMO, True Delta had superior reliability data (I was a participant) which provided much more detail on problems. Interestingly, the reliability data between the two sources was relatively consistent. Unfortunately. True Delta is no longer collecting data.
As for CR’s other data, it’s not something I put a lot of value in. I don’t necessarily agree with their subjective tests, such as the Road Test scores and I think their “predicted reliability” stat is sometimes dubious, especially for a complete new model.
I agree with comments saying that CR’s reliability ratings are quite valuable. I also like the tables showing dimensions and other objective data, allowing easy comparisons amongst cars being considered. Both of these help me determine car choices, but I rely more on other publications and my own in-person examination and test drives to address subjective matters.
The very first line says “Consumer Reports analyzes it’s test AND survey data to compile it’s Brand Report Card.
Not sure how it is weighted but, myself, I’d put more stock into their actual tests than their survey data.
Again, and I may be way off base here but personally don’t have many “automotive interested” friends that subscribe to CR. That’s why I take their subscriber survey with a grain of salt and was wondering how many of you subscribe ?
Only actual subscribers are given the survey to complete.
It always makes me roll my eyes when so many “Don’t trust CR” or say they’re biased. Y’all know they get their information FROM OWNERS OF SAID VEHICLES, right? It’s not Bernie Sanders trying to trick you to get a practical car or Bernie Madoff trying to pull the wool over your eyes about Maseratis or Barney Rubble lying about his Flintmobile … owners of the cars like you and me. If you don’t trust the owners to collect/report the data that’s odd but fine, however CR is trying to help, not bug.
I place far more faith in actual owners that I have spoke with, garage mechanics, cars we have sold and return/repeat customers and of course forums. I chose my 2017 Impala LT because literally not one person anywhere had a bad thing to say about the 2014-2020 version. Well 45k miles in and not a single issue to report. Ditto with my close friend’s 2015 V6 LT now closing in on 127K miles! This vehicle is easily one of the best I have ever owned or driven and surprise even CR ranks it up pretty high or did prior to 2020.
But as we know GM is a poorly driven hot mess with a captain that seems obsessed with what might be in the year 2039 than today’s customer and is killing off 90% of it’s sedans, including the Impala, so no more GM for me after that. My next purchase will be in the Hyundai/Kia lines more than likely.