Factoring in owner satisfaction, safety, reliability, and road tests, Consumer Reports has concluded that Subaru builds the best cars in 2024.
The magazine’s annual car brand report cards are out, and the brand known for all-wheel drive (AWD) and dog commercials took home the top prize. Subaru beat out every luxury automaker to take the top spot.
CR’s Methods Are Different
Most organizations that evaluate cars use their own testing to build a representative sample of all the cars on sale. Consumer Reports is a little different.
It’s a magazine and website devoted to evaluating all kinds of consumer products and services, from cars to life insurance. It surveys its own readers for an owner satisfaction score.
There’s a slight downside to that approach. It can create a sort of self-reinforcing cycle. As CR praises a brand, its subscribers may grow more likely to buy it. A brand that hasn’t received recent praise can grow rare in CR’s data set.
The company is also limited in what it tests. “To be included in the brand ranking, CR has to have tested at least two current models from a company,” it explains. “For that reason, we didn’t include Fiat, Jaguar, Lucid, Maserati, Polestar, and Ram.”
The system also has positive aspects — trusting it means taking advice from a subset of very discerning people.
Not Every Model From a Great Brand Is Great
The magazine also cautions that praising a lineup doesn’t mean there are no bad cars in it.
“Of the 32 brands Consumer Reports rated this year, only four manufacturers managed to earn recommendations for every model we tested: Porsche, Infiniti, Mini, and Buick,” they write. Those brands have small lineups to begin with.
Notably, Chrysler was the highest-scoring domestic brand, in 16th place. For the current model year, it makes just two models (which are arguably the same car): the Pacifica minivan and its bare-bones Voyager equivalent.
CR doesn’t recommend a single model from seven brands: Lincoln, Alfa Romeo, Dodge, GMC, Land Rover, Rivian, and Jeep. “They are also among the bottom-ranked brands. Consider carefully before buying from those manufacturers,” they write.
The Scores:
Where two brands had the same overall score, CR broke the tie using a combination of owner satisfaction scores, predicted reliability, and road test scores.