With Only A 5 Point Spread In Consumer Reports Rankings, Is Audi Finally Closing In On Lexus?

Lexus is the best overall brand; Fiat is worst. That's what Consumer Reports concludes after combining road-test and reliability scores for 28 brands for which the pubicaton had enough data.

In its annual April auto issue -- which has CR's biggest-circulation of the year at about 4 million -- says reliability and road test performance go together in what should be thought of "as a dating couple: often seen together, but not always."

Consumer Reports Rankings:

•Lexus, 78, 78%

•Mazda, 75, 67%

•Toyota, 74, 68%

•Audi, 73, 56%

•Subaru, 73, 80%

•Porsche, 70, 60%

•Buick, 69, 83%

•Honda, 69, 58%.

•Kia, 68, 78%

•BMW, 66, 50%

•Acura, 65, 40%

•Volvo, 65, 67%

•Hyundai, 64, 36%

•GMC, 61, 17%

•Volkswagen, 60, 46%

•Lincoln, 59, 40%

•Infiniti, 59, 29%

•Nissan, 59, 25%

•Chevrolet, 59, 36%

•Cadillac, 58, 25%

•Mercedes-Benz, 56, 20%

•Scion, 54, 25%

•Chrysler, 54, none

•Ford, 53, 19%

•Dodge, 52, 33%

•Mini, 46, none

•Jeep, 39, none

•Fiat, 32, none