The monthly trade magazine ranked Toyota Motor Corp.'s luxury Lexus brand No. 1 overall brand with all of its vehicles ''recommended,'' followed by Subaru, Mazda, Toyota and Honda Motor Co.'s Acura luxury line rounding out the top five. Overall, eight of the top 10 scores were earned by Japanese brands.
Foreign automakers dominated Consumer Reports' annual auto rankings, leaving the Detroit Three in the dust.DETROIT- Foreign automakers dominated Consumer Reports' annual auto rankings, leaving the Detroit Three in the dust.
The monthly trade magazine ranked Toyota Motor Corp.’s luxury Lexus brand No. 1 overall with all of its vehicles “recommended,” followed by Subaru, Mazda, Toyota and Honda Motor Co.’s Acura luxury line rounding out the top five. Overall, eight of the top 10 scores were earned by Japanese brands.
All of the brands from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC ranked toward the bottom of the 26-brand list.
“We recommend fewer than half of the domestic models we’ve tested, and most of them come from Chevy and GMC,” Consumer Reports said on its website.
At No. 14, GM’s Cadillac brand did the best of the domestic brands. Cadillac scored three places ahead of Chevrolet and GMC, based largely on the strength of the CTS. Buick, with subpar reliability, according to Consumer Reports, lagged farther behind, just ahead of Ford’s and Chrysler’s brands.
Ford’s namesake and luxury Lincoln brands were hindered by some models’ unrefined dual-clutch automated manual transmissions, a new lineup of EcoBoost turbocharged engines that don’t deliver the performance, and infotainment, which has now plagued its rankings for years.
“Newer models drive like European sports sedans, but they’re let down by unreliable and complex controls and so-so fuel economy,” said the magazine. “Hybrid technology is impressive.”
None of Chrysler’s brands fared too well either, with three of its brands in the bottom five. Its namesake brand had 25 percent of its vehicles recommended at No. 22, followed by Jeep and Dodge rounding out the list with scores of 47 and 46, respectively.
Consumer Reports, which has 8 million subscribers, calculates each brand's overall score using an equally weighted composite of the road-test and reliability scores for each of its tested models. Reliability scores are based on information that subscribers provided in its Annual Auto Survey.
Here's a look at the full list of brands from Consumer Reports:
1. Lexus- 79
2. Subaru- 76
3. Mazda- 76
4. Toyota- 74
5. Acura- 74
6. Honda- 72
7. Scion- 72
8. Audi- 70
9. Infiniti- 70
10. Mercedes-Benz- 69
11. Kia- 65
12. BMW- 64
13. Nissan- 64
14. Cadillac- 63
15. Hyundai- 63
16. Volkswagen- 62
17. GMC- 58
18. Chevrolet- 58
19. Volvo- 58
20. Mini- 56
21. Buick- 54
22. Chrysler- 52
23. Ford- 51
24. Lincoln- 50
25. Jeep- 47
26. Dodge- 46
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