Mazda, BMW, Subaru Top Consumer Reports 2021 Brand Report Card

Mazda just topped Consumer Reports’ annual rankings of the most trusted car brands for the first time.

Mazda sales in North America grew last year despite the Covid pandemic, thanks to the popularity of the CX-9 crossover and the seven-seat CX-30 SUV.

BMW, Subaru, Porsche and Honda completed the top five places on the Consumer Reports 2021 Brand Report Card, released Thursday.

Alfa Romeo fell at the bottom of the list of 32 brands, behind Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Jeep and Lincoln.

To determine the rankings, Consumer Reports purchases vehicles anonymously from dealers for road testing. It performs braking, handling, comfort, convenience, safety and fuel efficiency tests, and includes responses to Consumer Reports subscriber surveys in its analysis.

In 2020 Porsche and Genesis (which is owned by Hyundai) were at the top of the report card. Genesis was down 13 places this year “due to declining predicted reliability of its models,” Consumer Reports said.

Lincoln saw the worst drops in the rankings, dropping 15 places to 28th place. Consumer Reports noted that the brand’s updated SUVs, the Aviator and Corsair, performed well in road tests, but had “much below average” reliability.

Tesla, last year’s top American car brand, fell five places to get to 16.

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle business was “dragged by reliability issues with the Model S, Model Y and Model X,” Consumer Reports said.

In the US, Tesla recently issued a voluntary recall of tens of thousands of its older Model S and Model X vehicles for touchscreen defects that pose a safety risk to drivers. Tesla also recalled about 9,500 Model X and Model Y vehicles in November due to faulty roof trim and bolts.

Tesla achieved high owner satisfaction scores and performed well in road tests, according to Consumer Reports. But only Model 3, Tesla’s more affordable electric sedan, had a high enough reliability and overall rating to be recommended to drivers by Consumer Reports.

Just behind Tesla, the Mini, Kia and Volkswagen were left, all of which followed in Tesla’s footsteps and now provide pure battery electricity.

At the bottom of Consumer Reports’ 2021 rankings were Mitsubishi, Land Rover and Alfa Romeo in last place. Alfa Romeo was down 5 places due to “deteriorated reliability” and poor on-road performance, Consumer Reports said.