00:00 Speaker A
Consumer Reports has released its annual report for car brands. Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian is taking the wheel and joining us now with the malaise. So, what should we know from this list? What is the highest rate, Pras?
00:15 Pras
Therefore, Subaru and BMW again topped the list. Uh, CR says they are the best car brands overall. Uh, you know, they use their own independent reviews. They have a huge test track in Connecticut. They buy all the cars. Uh, they have hundreds of thousands of consumer surveys that they have. And over the course of 20 years, right? Both new and used car owners are voting. So Subaru excelled in both performance and comfort. Uh, BMW outshine said other, uh, luxury rivals in reliability. Now, interestingly, in the overall ranking, Tesla came in at number 10, uh a little more on them later. And on the other hand, Dodge, GMC, Land Rover, Rivian and Jeep at the bottom. Jeep has been there for the last few years now, uh, because of issues they had. Now, in terms of overall reliability, this is one component of the entire score. Toyota took first place followed by Subaru. But interestingly, Tesla reached number nine, its highest ever, with CR claiming that Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 quote overcame build quality issues from the past, right? So a lot of interesting findings in the report, you know, CR, you mentioned, you know, it’s the gold standard here when it comes to car reviews and their surveys their survey members see what the best cars are. And it’s kind of worth pointing out in terms of people looking for a new car. Here’s what to do. Look at these results and choose the type of car that suits your needs.
01:41 Speaker A
Um, they also um had a few things to say about hybrids, which I think is really interesting here. Um, you talked about reliability being one component of the score and I think hybrids are pretty reliable on their own.
02:00 Pras
Yeah, you know, Hybrids in the past have had problems with the complicated situation, you know, of the power train with the battery and an electric motor uh uh that augments the gas motor. Uh, issues with that. But those are starting to kind of go away. And I think something there is a percentage of about 15% less uh less problems that these hybrids uh CR notes. Uh, but one thing that is also interesting is pure EVs and they are saying that owners are struggling there with reliability. Uh, in particular, the GM Ultium EV platform has a series of battery failures and climate system issues. Uh, they don’t have enough data to suggest that reliability is improving, but overall EV reliability across all different types of brands is stabilizing they noted. So, uh, and this is despite new EV models entering the market at a rapid pace. So there are some changes uh there, some improvements there with hybrids and EVs still trying to catch up.
02:49 Speaker A
Yeah, that’s really interesting, um, all the things above on EVs I think, but also you mentioned Tesla’s kind of sharing the top 10 in terms of reliability, but it’s a different story if you buy a used Tesla, not a non-new Tesla.
03:09 Pras
Yeah, well, so Consumer reports looks at cars in the 5 to 10 year range for their used cars and back in those days, it was really the Model S that was the only car they had and if it had just come out and it’s still uu now 10 years later, it’s still suffering from a lot of old issues for a car that, you know, you got a new car that you made 10 years. you see some problems there. Uh, you know, the Model 3 only came out in 2017, 2018, so it’s not even that old. Uh, and those newer ones, sorry, the cars that they made first suffered from a lot of fit and finish issues, uh, some quality issues, they were seeing that come out, but apparently the newer Teslas are in better shape.
03:52 Speaker A
Uh, was there anything on the list that surprised you the most, Pras?
03:57 Pras
Yeah, one little thing I saw was Rivian, wasn’t it? Rivian was kind of low in the overall rankings and they were dead last in reliability, right? So it’s not good. But they had the highest number of buyers would buy another Rivian if they could. Uh and CR kind of explained that it’s the fact that these people who buy Rivians are okay with the technology growing pains until they get new technology. They are willing to suffer this because they love the product, they love the technology, uh they love cars and I think the spirit of adventure is there and they are willing to take a chance and deal with some service visits.
04:22 Speaker A
This is really interesting. Pras, thank you very much.
04:26 Pras
Thank you.