Consumer Reports Names Subaru Best Mainstream Brand for Second Consecutive Year

Consumer Reports evaluates vehicles in multiple ways. They test them extensively and send out surveys to owners asking about their experiences of reliability, quality, and overall satisfaction. Once a year, they combine all this information to rate individual models and the brands overall. Subaru of Rochester is pleased to report that Subaru had the highest rank of any non-luxury brand and was rated second overall of all 34 rated brands. 

This is the second year in a row for Subaru to rank at the top among all mainstream brands and the second year to rank second only to BMW overall. “The key for both companies is their consistent combination of high road-test scores and very good predicted reliability,” says Consumer Reports in their report.

Luxury brands often do well in this evaluation because they deliver on what people paid extra to enjoy. Luxury cars deliver luxury, and performance cars deliver performance. If they don’t fail spectacularly in other areas, they will have satisfied owners. In fact, the only brands with higher than average satisfaction ratings were either luxury brands (BMW, Porsche, Genesis, Alfa Romeo) or highly specialized (Mini, Tesla, Rivian).  

Mainstream brands have it tougher because they have to be good all around. Some owners prioritize reliability, others versatility, and others economy, while comfort and performance can also rank high among mainstream buyers. So, rather than deliver well on a particular specialty, mainstream brands must be reasonably good at everything and have no significant faults to rank well. 

This makes it all the more impressive that Subaru scored 2nd overall among all brands. With a score of 80, Subaru was just below BMW, which had a score of 82, and just above Porsche, which also scored an 80, though Consumer Reports does not list them as having tied.

“What’s more interesting, probably at the top, is seeing Subaru; they’re No. 2 sandwiched between two luxurious expensive German automakers [BMW and Porsche, at No. 3], and that’s almost more impressive that this is a brand with much more affordable vehicles that also score well,” said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports Director of Auto Testing.

The next highest mainstream brand was Honda, in the 4th position. The mainstream brands that followed, ranked 7-10, were Kia, Mazda, Toyota, and Hyundai, in that order. Among mainstream brands, Subaru also had the highest road test score average at 84 and was only among four mainstream brands with an overall above-average Predicted Reliability rating.

If you are looking at any model in which Subaru competes, including small and midsize crossovers, small or midsize passenger cars, or a small sports car, you will want to shop the Subaru model in these categories. If you are in the general area south of the Twin Cities, the place to do it is Subaru of Rochester.