Audi, Subaru and Lexus have taken the podium positions in Consumer Reports latest ‘best cars‘ rankings.
The magazine recommends every single test model from Audi and Subaru. The Japanese mainstream automaker is arguably the most notable winner, ranking higher than luxury brands Lexus, Porsche and BMW.
The brand comparisons are based on overall scores, road-test performance and predicted reliability for each tested model of each brand. Scores are then averaged to determine which companies build the best vehicles.
“Brands with a lineup of mature, incrementally updated vehicles tended to rise to the top,” the magazine wrote. “For instance, Toyota’s middling road-test score was balanced by strong reliability; Mercedes-Benz’s strong road tests were offset by below par reliability. And Honda, Nissan, and Chrysler suffered due to problematic new transmissions.”
At the bottom of the list, Fiat was deemed the worst brand with the lowest overall score, second-to-worst road-test score and worst predicted reliability. Fiat Chrysler Automobile brands took four of the bottom six positions, shared by Land Rover and Mitsubishi. Notably, Consumer Reports does not recommend a single tested model from Jeep or Fiat.
“We respect Consumer Reports’ opinion, as they’re one of the many third-party evaluators we receive comments from,” FCA quality VP Matt Liddane said in a statement. “With that being said, we encourage customers to experience our vehicles for themselves. We continue to aggressively pursue both product and launch-quality improvements as they are top priorities for the Company and our internal measurements are showing progress.”
Leave a Reply