On Automotive Looks At CR Vehicle Report

By Gary S. Vasilash
Founding Editor of Automotive Design & Production (AD&P)

Two Interesting Things About Consumer Reports’ Auto Scoring

1. Of the Top 10 vehicles selected in the Consumer Reports annual assessment, 70% are in the “electrified” category, with only the Toyota Corolla Cross, Subaru Forester, and Kia Telluride being outliers. (And Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of automotive testing, noted a Corolla Cross hybrid is on its way. Fisher also referred to the hybrid Maverick pickup that’s on the list as a “gamechanger” that “really, really impressed us,” so evidently electrification is gaining a whole lot of cred.)

The 10 vehicles:

• Toyota Corolla Hybrid
• Toyota Corolla Cross
• Subaru Forester
• Toyota Camry Hybrid
• Ford Maverick Hybrid
• Nissan Leaf
• Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid
• Kia Telluride
• Lexus NX350h
• Tesla Model 3

2. The CR Brand Report Card takes into account road testing, reliability, owner satisfaction, and safety. Not price.

And while there seem to be ties, according to Fisher, there are no ties in automotive, that there are numbers to the right of the decimal point (not provided), so while companies have the same whole number, the different numeric ranking is the right one.

1. BMW 81 points
2. Subaru 79
3. Mini 79
4. Lexus 77
5. Honda 77
6. Toyota 76
7. Genesis 76
8. Mazda 75
9. Audi 74
10. Kia 73
11. Acura 72
12. Buick 71
13. Hyundai 71
14. Porsche 70
15. Dodge 68
16. Lincoln 66
17. Tesla 66
18. Infiniti 65
19. VW 64
20. Volvo 64
21. Nissan 63
22. Ford 63
23. Chevy 62
24. Cadillac 62
25. Chrysler 62
26. Mercedes 56
27. GMC 55
28. Mitsubishi 54
29. Alfa Romeo 53
30. Jaguar 52
31. Jeep 46
32. Land Rover 45

An interesting thing about the rankings is that CR shows the number of vehicles it tested for a given brand and the number of those that it recommends.

Only four companies have a 1:1 relationship.

• BMW 9 vehicles
• Mini 2
• Honda 6
• Buick 3

There is something to be said for consistency (but then again, most people buy one vehicle at a time, so that 1:1 may be irrelevant to the choice).

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