BMW for the first time landed the top overall spot in Consumer Reports (CR) annual Auto Brand Report Card Rankings, narrowly edging out last year's winner, Subaru. The rankings reveal which automakers are producing the best-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CR’s independent testing and member surveys. Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys helped propel BMW up two spots from last year to number one. However, the fact that mainstream Subaru finished once again in the top three, followed closely by several other non-luxury brands, shows that car buyers don’t have to pay a premium to get a safe, satisfying, and reliable car.
“BMW builds many high-performing, full-featured, and reliable models, so it’s not surprising to see it at the top of our brand rankings,” said Jake Fisher, senior director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports. “But non-luxury brands like Subaru, Toyota, and Mazda have also consistently ranked high over the past few years, ensuring that consumers don’t have to sacrifice affordability to get a high-quality car.”
In total, 32 brands are included in CR’s 2023 Brand Report Card. The consumer research, testing and advocacy organization conducts more than 50 science-based tests on every vehicle it evaluates, including braking, handling, comfort, convenience, and fuel economy, which combine to form a road-test score. CR then determines the Overall Score—a combination of the road test score, predicted reliability, owner satisfaction based on member surveys, key safety features, and crash-test results, if available—for each model tested. The brands are then ranked by averaging the Overall Scores of their respective models to reveal the best and worst.
Mini climbed five positions to come in third this year, followed by three Japanese brands: Lexus, Honda, and Toyota. Genesis, Mazda, Audi, and Kia round out the top ten.
For the domestic auto brands, Buick was once again the highest-charting of the group, falling back one spot to 12th place. Dodge (15th place) landed mid pack, but Lincoln surged ahead by 10 positions into 16th place thanks to improved reliability of the Corsair and Nautilus SUVs. The other Detroit legacy brands fall in the bottom-third of the rankings, with Jeep coming in at second to last.
Tesla moved upward by six spots from last year’s rankings, coming in at number 17. This was due to the improving reliability scores of the brand. Land Rover was this year’s worst ranked brand.
Toyota for the second year in a row has the lineup with the most CR Green Choice designees (9), which are among the cleanest, lowest-emitting passenger vehicles. While Toyota has been slow at adding pure electric vehicles, they sell many clean and efficient hybrids.
Marta Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports, said, “This year, auto brands are offering more choices with fewer emissions. Everybody should have access to safe, affordable vehicles that go further on a gallon of gas, or no gas at all.”
Tellado added, “It’s been a tough year for car buyers. There’s a lot of pent-up consumer demand for vehicles, with the lingering effects of the pandemic, supply chain issues, and chip shortages. There are some signs that the car market is improving for consumers, and we’re here to help people navigate a process that can feel intimidating and overwhelming.”
CR buys all of its test cars anonymously from dealers and does not accept free samples from automakers for any of its ratings or evaluations. CR’s testers drive a total of 500,000 miles annually in the vehicles it evaluates, which is the equivalent of circling the Earth twenty times.