Lincoln Corsair
Lincoln wound up at the bottom of the make rankings for reliability by Consumer Reports. In general, automakers with multiple new models, as Lincoln has, tend to endure on reliability. Lincoln

Japanese import brands dominate the Top 10 brand reliability rankings in the almanac Auto Reliability survey from Consumer Reports. Half-dozen out of the Superlative 10 brands for 2021 are Toyota, Nissan and Honda, and their respective luxury divisions, Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura.

Mazda and Subaru are also amongst the Top 10 brands. The only domestic brand in the Elevation x is Buick from Full general Motors, and the only European brand is BMW'south Mini.

Click to come across the Consumer Reports 2022 Brand Report Card. It ranks cars on performance, comfort, efficiency and safety in add-on to reliability. The top-rated brands for 2022 were Subaru, Mazda, BMW, Honda and Lexus.

Other highlights from the survey:

  • Gasoline-electric hybrids and plug-in hybrids are among the most reliable individual models in the survey—partly because some of them are based on tried-and-true models that have been in production for years, and so manufacturers take gotten all the bugs out.
  • Loftier-end, battery-powered, electric SUVs, a category dominated by the Tesla make, are among the least reliable vehicles — simply for issues other than their electric powertrains, like fit and stop, or how well features like climate control piece of work.
  • Technologically advanced transmissions, ofttimes aimed at greater fuel efficiency, were the source of many complaints. Those included chugalug-driven, continuously-variable transmissions, and gearboxes with 8 or ix gears. Transmission complaints cropped upwardly for certain models for the Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, and Toyota brands, Consumer Reports said.

(For the record, Consumer Reports refers to itself as CR, and refers to its more than than 6 million online and magazine subscribers as members.)

Brand rankings are compiled based on detailed survey responses virtually individual models, for the well-nigh recent three model years, said Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, in a phone interview.

CR Auto Reliability survey
Luxury midsize SUVs bookend the extremes of the 2021 Consumer Reports 2021 Auto Reliability report: The Lexus GX is best of the best and the Mercedes-Benz GLE is the very-everyman rated vehicle. Most of the top-rated cars either offering an electrified powertrain (hybrid, plug-in or EV) or the current generation has been around for years. The current generation of the Lexus GX has been offered since 2010.

CR Survey Helps Predict Reliability of 2022 Cars, Trucks

The idea of the survey is to predict the reliability of new, 2022 model-year cars and trucks, based on their contempo history, for the benefit of new-vehicle shoppers today, Fisher said. Consumer Reports too rates used cars separately.

That's in dissimilarity to another well-known survey that sounds similar, the J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study. But it's non quite the same thing. Instead of compiling responses for vehicles up to and including iii model years old, the Power survey asks owners solely about 3-year-erstwhile vehicles that they purchased new.

The Consumer Reports 2021 Auto Reliability Report is based on data collected from subscribers, nearly their experiences with more 300,000 vehicles. The almanac survey is an omnibus questionnaire, which asks respondents to rate a long listing of household purchases, not just autos.

Individual models that were introduced for the first time, or which recently got an all-new redesign, are an exception to the rule, Fisher said. If the electric current, 2022 model is based on a pattern that's less than three years one-time, ratings are based on survey results for the latest one or two model years, every bit the case may be. That's to keep the results relevant for today's new-vehicle shoppers, instead of rating the "old" model, he said.

While in that location are exceptions, ane takeaway from the survey is that on average, new or redesigned models have more than their share of issues, and then it might be advisable to postpone buying a new model until the manufacturer gets early problems ironed out.

"We don't tell people what to buy. Merely if reliability is of import to y'all, that is good advice," Fisher said. On the other hand, a lot of consumers are willing to overlook a problem here and there, to get the latest applied science, he said.

"People Love Tesla. Practise They Expect Trouble-Free? Probably Non"

"What'due south important is, that yous know what y'all're getting into. Tesla is a great example of this," Fisher said. "People dear the buy. Do they expect it to be the most trouble-gratis? Probably not."

In J.D. Power surveys before this year, Tesla wasn't officially ranked considering of a small sample size. All the same, its unofficial score was most the bottom in the 2021 Initial Quality Study, based on the number of "things gone wrong" in the outset 90 days of ownership. However Tesla's unofficial score was No. 1 in the 2021 Automotive Performance Execution and Layout (APEAL) study, which measures how much people like their recent purchase.

In the Consumer Reports Auto Reliability survey, the Superlative x Most Reliable models are: Lexus GX (most reliable), Kia Niro EV, Toyota Prius Prime, Toyota Prius, Cadillac XT5, Mazda MX-v Miata, Honda Insight, Toyota Highlander, Subaru Crosstrek, Mazda CX-9.

According to Consumer Reports, the Bottom 10 Least Reliable models are: Subaru Ascent, Chrysler Pacifica, Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen Tiguan, Volvo XC90, Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Silverado 1500/GMC Sierra 1500, Ford Mustang, Ford Explorer, Mercedes-Benz GLE (least of the least reliable).

Consumer Reports 2021 Auto Reliability Study
Mini leaped xiii places to land in the height 10 of the CR 2021 Automobile Reliability Report while Ram savage 12 spots to 23. Four of the six bottom brands this year are luxury vehicles. Consumer Reports says the brands are in v bands of reliability, noted by the shading behind the scores: The top band comprises vehicles CR considers Well Above Average or Above Boilerplate, followed by bands for Average, Below Boilerplate and Well Below Boilerplate.