Once again, Consumer Reports has released its list of the best and worst automakers. And, once again, German, Japanese, and South Korean brands fared well, while American and British marques fell behind.
Up two spots from last year, Porsche now sits as Consumer Report’s highest-rated automaker with an overall score of 86. Genesis held its spot in second place with a score of 84, while Subaru came in third and carried a score of 81, having dropped two spots. Mazda and Lexus rounded out the top five, respectively. Out of those top five automakers, Consumer Reports recommends all of the vehicles that it’s tested from Porsche, Genesis, and Mazda. Out of all 33 automakers in the outlet’s ratings, these three are the only brands that have a 100% recommendation rating from the organization.
Porsche is the best overall automaker and has the best overall road-test score, Mazda has the best reliability rating, and Subaru has the best overall mainstream score and best mainstream road-test score. Tesla is Consumer Reports’ best overall American automaker.
Hyundai and Kia both jumped three spots this year, coming in 7th and 9th, respectively. Both brands have introduced award-winning and highly-popular three-row SUVs for the model year, which certainly helped them climb up the rankings. Tesla made the largest leap of all automakers this year, climbing eight spots. Reliability improvements with the Model 3 and Model S helped the electric automaker jump to 11th.
Now, for the not so good automakers. Fiat, for the second year in a row, claimed the last spot on the list. The automaker was named the worst overall brand. Out of the three Fiat vehicles that the organization tested, it didn’t recommend a single one of them. Mitsubishi fell two spots to 32nd, or one better than the worst. The Japanese manufacturer had the worst road-test score.
Automakers from 26th to 31st, which is better to worst, but still plenty bad, are as follows: GMC, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Cadillac, Land Rover, and Jeep. Jeep’s the most surprising automaker toward the bottom of the list. The SUV-heavy brand fell two spots from last year and the organization only recommends one of the six vehicles it tested. Still, that’s better than the rest. Besides Jeep, brands that fell between 26th and 33rd didn’t have any recommended vehicles.
Four main things go into an automaker’s rating by Consumer Reports. The first piece of criteria is the road test score, which is based on a total of 50 tests that vehicles purchased by the organization are put through. The second one is predicted reliability. That rating is based on problems that are reported by Consumer Reports’ members in 17 specific areas.
Owner satisfaction is the third thing that automakers are ranked on. Consumer Reports gets its information for this ranking by looking at surveys the organization’s members completed that asked whether they would purchase the same vehicle if they had to do the entire shopping process all over again. Lastly, brands are ranked on safety, including crash-test results and advanced safety features.
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