(WWJ) For the second year in a row, Subaru finished at the top in Consumer Reports annual Automotive Brand Report Card.
“They really are very conservative when they redesign vehicles,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports. “They take what they do, and they do a lot of it well.”
BMW finished a close second. The top domestic brand was Lincoln at number 7.
Fisher says historically brands that do well in Consumer Reports testing have technology that has been on the road several years and is well tested. The reverse is also true, for brands that haven’t done well.
“Unsurprisingly, it’s ones that are kind of new with new technology. Those are the ones that are kind of experiencing a lot of the growing pains.”
The report card is a combination of Consumer Reports own testing, along with reliability and owner satisfaction data from readers of the publication.
Half of the top ten brands are mass market. Lincoln, at number 7, was the top domestic brand. It showed a lot of growth from last year, as did Tesla, which stands in 10th place.
“Tesla has kind of stuck with it, now 15 years down the road, making at scale electric vehicles,” says Fisher. “They really have improved.”
Consumer Reports also releasing its latest reliability scores. Subaru finished second to Toyota. Lexus, Honda and BMW rounded out the top 5. Buick was the top domestic brand in 8th place.
Tesla also showed improvement in reliability, moving into 9th place. But another EV startup, Rivian, finished last in the reliability rankings.
“It’s kind of a shame, because they are really desirable vehicles,” said Fisher. “As you can imagine, a new car company, new vehicles, there’s a lot to work out.”
Electric vehicles and plug in hybrids are still new technologies, and reliability issues are still cropping up. But, Fisher says hybrid technology is showing itself to be very reliable.
“Hybrid technology is not something that’s really brand new. It’s been around for about a quarter of a century now. It does not seem to take a toll when it comes to reliability.”
Jeep finished last in the brand study. Fisher says that was mostly because of trouble with its plug-in hybrid vehicles.
This year’s study includes evaluations of more than 380,000 vehicles, and road tests of more than 200 new cars and trucks.