Popular Cars to Avoid and What to Buy Instead

That’s why it’s important to approach each new-car shopping experience with an open mind and use CR’s ratings to find the best-performing vehicles in the class and price range you’re considering. Our testing shows that some new cars outperform others you see on the road everywhere you go.

“Don’t just follow the crowd when buying a new car,” Fisher says. “Your neighbor might like their new car, but when it’s time for you to choose, take the advice of experts who have compared that model to every one of its competitors and incorporated the feedback from hundreds of thousands of owners.”

We rate and rank cars based on testing and what our members tell us in surveys. The cars that excel in all the areas we examine earn the highest Overall Score. (Learn how Consumer Reports tests cars.)

To help guide you to better choices, we present some of the top-selling models (based on sales and registration data) in nine key categories and provide compelling alternatives that have a higher Overall Score. All these models come standard with automatic emergency braking (AEB), AEB that operates at highway speeds, blind spot warning (BSW), and rear cross traffic warning (RCTW), unless otherwise noted.

If you’re a CR member, this article and the list below are already available to you. But if you haven’t signed up, click below and become a member to access the list and all our exclusive ratings and reviews for each vehicle we buy and test. Joining also gives you full access to exclusive ratings and reviews for every product we buy and test, including grills, mobile phones, appliances, and flat-screen TVs.