Consumer Reports has issued its annual Brand Report Card, which ranks vehicles and automakers by expected reliability, reputation, and tallies the scores given to the brand’s vehicles by CR reviewers. Most of the top brands are luxury makes, but inside that Top 10 are Subaru and Mazda. Which should be no surprise to anyone who follows automotive.
Audi came out on the very top with a score of 80 and Subaru was close behind at 78. CR currently recommends all of the vehicles each brand makes. Lexus, Porsche, and BMW tied for third place to finish off the top five on the list. Mazda and Buick were next. Mazda also received a 100 percent recommendation on every vehicle in its lineup.
“It’s not enough to make cars that drive and handle well. Consumers are best served when those vehicles are also highly reliable and safe,” said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports director of automotive testing.
In total, 30 brands were included in CR’s 2016 Brand Report Card. To determine which marques consistently deliver cars that serve consumers well, Consumer Reports tabulated the overall score, road test score, and predicted reliability results for each tested model of a brand. Then CR’s auto experts averaged those scores at the brand level as an indicator of which brands make the best cars.
