Detroit Three automakers again struggled compared to their Asian competition in Consumer Reports’ annual brand reliability rankings, though Buick and Ford both notably made up ground on the leaders.
Toyota, Subaru, Lexus and Honda took the top four spots in this year’s new car rankings released Thursday, in many cases thanks to their tried-and-true vehicle platforms and conservative model redesigns. BMW slotted in fifth as the top European automaker.
At the bottom were Chrysler, GMC, Jeep and Ram, with electric vehicle maker Rivian taking the last-place spot, at No. 26. The D3 continues to face reliability challenges with its best-selling pickups, at times dragging down their scores, Consumer Reports analysts noted.
“They’re not just like the trucks from 30 years ago, which were just basic trucks,” said Steven Elek, the organization’s data analytics program leader. “A lot of features and power equipment are on these that tend to go wrong.”
There were a few bright spots for the traditional American brands: Buick slotted in at No. 8 and Ford at No. 11, with both making gains from last year and now firmly in the top half of all brands ranked. Chevrolet and Cadillac were No. 17 and 18, respectively, with Lincoln at No. 20.
Ford, which has long dealt with quality challenges and recently a costly string of recalls, said the ranking shows it’s headed in the right direction. It was Ford’s highest Consumer Reports reliability ranking in 15 years. The result “confirms what we’re seeing in our data,” that quality is improving, a statement from spokesperson Mike Levine said.
The rankings, out annually, were based this year on data submitted by Consumer Reports members for 380,000 individual vehicles.
The organization also released several other brand rankings Thursday, including owner satisfaction and road-test rating ranking. Then they combined them together into one overall brand ranking that also includes safety assessments.
Subaru took the top award in that overall brand quality ranking, followed by BMW and Porsche, with Jeep in last place. The Stellantis NV brand also came in dead last on the road-test ranking and for owner satisfaction. As far as the brand’s reliability challenges, Consumer Reports pointed to owner complaints with most models except the small Compass, which ranked as having average reliability.
In the overall results, Lincoln was the top-ranked Detroit Three brand at No. 7, with Cadillac No. 17, Ford No. 18, Buick No. 20, Chevrolet No. 24, and several Stellantis brands clustered near the bottom. Lincoln and Ford have notably improved their results, said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ director of testing.
“There’s a lot of good there,” he said. “If you haven’t driven a Ford or Lincoln recently, the driving dynamics, the interior comfort, some of the innovation that they’re doing is really, really impressive.”
In a presentation of the results to the Automotive Press Association on Thursday, the Consumer Reports experts noted that EVs and plug-in hybrids continue to create problems for their owners, generating about 80% more problems than gas-powered cars. Other hybrid models without plugs are considered generally highly reliable, however — generating about 15% fewer problems than their purely gas-powered counterparts.
Elek said that’s in large part because plug-in powertrains haven’t been around as long, and reliable brands like Toyota have made lots of them.
“The general trend of what we’re seeing is, the longer a technology has been around, and the more time automakers have to work out the kinks, they get more reliable,” he said. “Whereas, the newer technologies, like plug-in hybrids and EVs, they’re still working on that.”
One EV maker that has seen improvements in Consumer Reports’ rankings: Tesla.
It was ranked No. 9 for reliability and No. 10 in the overall ranking, a big improvement over last year, where it ranked No. 17 for reliability and No. 18 overall. That’s thanks to big quality improvements on its Model 3 and Model S; the Cybertruck pickup is the only Tesla model that continues to have below-average reliability.
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