The historic US organization has published the results of the analysis on 380 thousand cars registered since 2000. The house of the Ellipse clearly surpassed Subaru and Lexus. The models of European brands are bad
That of Consumer Reports, despite being limited to the US market, is one of the most awaited annual surveys by car manufacturers because the data is collected on a very large number of cars: for the 2025 ranking, approximately 380 thousand units registered between 2000 and 2025, which makes a difference with analyzes of more recent models. The evaluation system is based on the control of 20 areas for each car, from mechanical components to some plastics and interior trim. For each problem a “severity index” is assigned, based on how more or less serious the damage actually was. This is why Consumer Reports is a real institution, awaited by manufacturers who fear seeing their sales collapse if they find themselves at the bottom of the rankings. More coldly, the results of their study certainly remain to be evaluated, even if they should not be considered in absolute terms, as some models analyzed are not available in Europe or sometimes have different engines, but it is also true that the construction quality and technical solutions of the manufacturers are valid for every product they put on the market.
DUE TO SUVS AND CROSSOVERS
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In the 2025 automotive reliability survey, to regain first place with 66/100, Toyota was able to count on the excellent results of the 4Runner (95/100), an SUV unknown in Europe and which overseas is considered the economical alternative to the Land Cruiser. A victory that was even more appreciated as it comes after not easy years in North America, even if in 2024 the house of the Ellipse had risen to third place, even if Consumer Reports points out that the latest generations of the Camry sedan as well as the Tacoma and Tundra pickups encountered numerous problems at the beginning of the series. In second place is Subaru which has dropped one step compared to the success of 2024: the 80/100 of the Impreza contributed greatly to the good 63/100. Lexus, Toyota’s premium brand, completes the all-Japanese podium with 60/100, going down one place compared to 2024. On top is the IS sports sedan (84/100) which is not offered on the European market. Another Japanese company, Honda, in fourth place, which it had also achieved a year ago, with the same index of 59/100. The model that convinced Consumer Reports the most was the Passport SUV (with D-segment dimensions, only for North America) which received a formidable score of 97/100.
BMW defends Europe
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We need to drop to fifth place to find the first European home: BMW, which was eighth in 2024, received 58/100 driven by the performance of Series 2 (73/100). Behind Nissan, growing strongly (it was 12th) with 57/100 and the Kicks (a “global” crossover, which never arrived in our country) as the spearhead with 76/100. Followed by Acura (premium Honda brand, fifth in 2024, with 54/100) and Buick, the first stars and stripes manufacturer, capable of a good exploit given that it was 11th last year: the overall 51/100 comes mainly from the Envision, another SUV produced in China. The news is the rise of Tesla, usually “massacred” by Consumer Reports: in 17th place in 2024, Elon Musk’s brand entered the top ten in ninth place with 50/100 where on the one hand the Model Y brought a big brick (81/100), on the other the Cybertruck did not go beyond 34/100. Closing the top ten is Kia with 49/100 despite having convinced the well-known Carnival minivan, which reached 72/100.
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THE FALL OF MAZDA
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On the contrary, we witnessed the collapse of Mazda which fell from sixth place last year to 14th with a score of 43/100. A decline mainly due to problems found on the CX-70 and CX-90 models, close cousins of the CX-60 and CX-80 models sold in Europe. The compact sedan 3 fared better, achieving a score of 62/100. As per tradition, Consumer Reports has hit hard on European manufacturers: Audi has dropped from seventh to 13th place (Q3 was saved with 57/100), Volvo is 15th (with the XC60 at 55/100) just ahead of Volkswagen which has the best model Golf GTi with 58/100, Mercedes-Benz even 19th with the C-Class stuck at 59/100. The US brands of the Stellantis Group did as badly as last year; Chrysler, Jeep and Ram are all outside the top twenty, and their models received ratings below 50/100. Consumer Reports’ overall opinion on power supplies is interesting: “In general, electric vehicles do not particularly shine in the survey, nor did plug-in hybrids. Non-rechargeable hybrid cars, on the other hand, are seen as reliable choices that also offer excellent fuel economy.”
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