Which Brands Make the Best Cars?
Consumer Reports rated cars from 31 brands on reliability, owner satisfaction, safety, and road-test scores. Here’s how the manufacturers rank, based on their vehicles’ Overall Scores.
This list ranks car manufacturers from best to worst, based on the quality of their vehicles. To assess this, we calculated the averages of their new vehicles’ Overall Score, a combination of the results from our road tests, safety assessments, and reliability and owner satisfaction surveys. If you’re shopping for a new car, this list is the place to start your research.
This year, Subaru again earned the top spot as the best car brand. “While Subaru models provide good performance and comfort, they also excel in areas that may not be immediately apparent during a test drive,” says Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of auto testing. “They share proven parts that help assure consistently great reliability. They also use cutting-edge safety systems and perform well in our emergency handling and braking tests.”
BMW was a close second, holding its title as the benchmark luxury brand. Fisher says, “BMW has made very highly desirable models for years, and their reliability easily outshines all of their European rivals.”
Lexus slid back to sixth place due to models like the GX SUV dropping to average reliability, and the absence of the strong-performing ES sedan, which is being replaced with a new version.
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How We Rank the Car Brands
Consumer Reports bases the Overall Score for a car on four key factors: road-test performance, reliability, owner satisfaction, and safety. For the road-test score, our experts put vehicles through more than 50 tests. The predicted reliability ratings are based on our auto surveys, where thousands of CR members report the problems they’ve had with their cars in 20 possible trouble areas. CR’s owner satisfaction predictions are based on whether members said in our surveys that they would buy the same vehicle again if given the chance. Safety (which isn’t shown) includes an assessment of available crash test results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, with points awarded or deducted depending on the results. Our safety ratings also depend on whether vehicles come standard with a proven crash-prevention system, or whether the manufacturer sells safety technology only as an upgrade.
Learn more about how Consumer Reports tests cars.
