Audi makes the best cars according to Consumer Reports

7 years, 9 months ago - 5 March 2017, motor1

For the second year in a row, Audi has managed to claim the top spot.

In the annual ranking of car brands released by Consumer Reports, Audi leads the pack and is followed by two other German premium marques: Porsche and BMW, both of which have managed to improve their ratings compared to the 2016 analysis. The Ingolstadt-based marque has posted an overall score of 81, thus trumping Porsche by three points and BMW by four.

To better understand how the points are being attributed to each brand, these results are overall scores obtained by combining the following factors: owner satisfaction, road tests, predicted reliability, and safety. Even though Audi is first in the overall rankings, it’s important to point out Porsche has a better road test score (88 vs 86), while BMW is on a par with Audi as far as road test results are concerned.

While the top five brands are unchanged from last year, the order is not the same taking into account Porsche and BMW are up by two positions, Lexus is down by one, while Subaru has lost three spots.

If you’re wondering about which U.S. brand ranks highest, it would have to be Tesla on eighth spot with an overall score of 73 points and a road test score of 88 points based on a range consisting of just two models. At the bottom of the charts, Fiat is dead last with a mere 41-point overall score and 52-point road test score.

Here are the complete rankings:

Rank	Brand	Overall Score	Road Test Score
1	Audi	81	86
2	Porsche	78	88
3	BMW	77	86
4	Lexus	77	74
5	Subaru	74	81
6	Kia	74	77
7	Mazda	73	75
8	Tesla	73	88
9	Honda	72	77
10	Buick	72	72
11	Toyota	71	68
12	Hyundai	70	73
13	Acura	68	73
14	Volvo	68	77
15	Lincoln	68	80
16	Infiniti	67	77
17	Chevrolet	67	74
18	Cadillac	66	79
19	Chrysler	66	84
20	Mercedes-Benz	66	80
21	Ford	65	74
22	Nissan	64	69
23	Volkswagen	64	78
24	Mini	60	71
25	GMC	60	73
26	Jaguar	59	79
27	Dodge	56	74
28	Land Rover	52	71
29	Mitsubishi	51	46
30	Jeep	45	55
31	Fiat	41	52

Chrysler had the highest jump among all 31 ranked automakers, managing to climb seven places. As for Acura, Cadillac, and Infiniti, these three brands also performed way better compared to 2016 by moving up six places. Kia was the best non-premium marque by finishing in sixth place with an overall score of 74 points and a road test score of 77 points.

CR wishes to reiterate corporate behavior was not taken into consideration.