CR The Most and Least Liked Car Brands: Tesla Tops, Infiniti on Bottom

[Tragic Bronson]

Most and Least Loved Car Brands - Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports asked owners whether they’d buy their same car again if given the chance. Then we sorted responses by vehicle brand.

www.consumerreports.org

Infiniti Is The Least Liked Car Brand, Tesla Most: Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports offers its annual list of automakers least and most liked, determined by a series of statistics.

www.motor1.com

Owner satisfaction can be a tricky statistic to nail down. Ask someone just two weeks into car ownership how much they like it, and the answer is likely to be favorable. Ask the same person the same question a year later and it could be completely different.

Consumer Reports attempts to bring some order to the subject of owner satisfaction through its comprehensive list of most and least liked brands. Information is drawn from the 2020 Annual Autos Survey that includes 369,000 cars, but a final score isn't merely determined by folks who say they would definitely buy their car again if given the choice. Five additional satisfaction categories including driving, comfort, in-car electronics, cabin storage, and value are factored in, returning a final score.

As you've already learned from the headline, Tesla scored best while Infiniti scored worst. Specifically, Tesla earned a total score of 88, while Infiniti's score was 48. However, there's a bit more to it than just the number. Consumer Reports clarifies that this study is about cars meeting the expectations of owners, and doesn't necessarily correlate with build quality or reliability. Someone might love everything about a particular model despite it being in the shop constantly. Conversely, something absolutely dependable and faultless could score low if it was thoroughly uninspiring.

With that in mind, a closer look at the numbers reveals Tesla scored highest for driving, and very high for comfort and electronics. Storage was just average, but Tesla earned a 1 out of 5 for value, the lowest score possible. On the flip side, Infiniti also scored the lowest for value, but also earned a 1 out of 5 for electronics. Cabin storage was below average, while driving and comfort only managed to garner average marks.

Joining Tesla in the top five are Lincoln in second, followed by Ram, Chrysler, and Subaru. At the bottom, Nissan scored 58 for the second-lowest ranking followed by Cadillac, Buick, and Mercedes-Benz. Consumer Reports notes that some brands only offer a few models while others offer many, and that alone can affect scores. To make the survey, brands must have at least two models in their lineup. Additionally, several brands including Acura, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Genesis, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, and Mitsubishi were excluded from the study.

 

[mikeavelli]

Interesting to see Infiniti is a value brand and owners are rating them poorly on value. What a horrible mix.

Lexus looks mid-pack here.

 

[mmcartalk]

Interesting to see Infiniti is a value brand and owners are rating them poorly on value. What a horrible mix.

Lexus looks mid-pack here.

Notice one thing interesting, however.

No brand, regardless of price, got more than 3 out of 5 in value. That tells me that many people think that today's vehicles, across the board, are overpriced. Personally, I don't agree with that view, but apparently many potential buyers do.

 

[Levi]

Notice one thing interesting, however.

No brand, regardless of price, got more than 3 out of 5 in value. That tells me that many people think that today's vehicles, across the board, are overpriced. Personally, I don't agree with that view, but apparently many potential buyers do.

I do think they are overpriced. Prices go up regardless of tier, every year more than salary increase. For business owners and c-suites this is not an issue, but most are employees, their income does not increase as much as price do. No wonder Dacia is the most successful Renault-Nissan brand in Europe.

 

[mmcartalk]

I do think they are overpriced. Prices go up regardless of tier, every year more than salary increase. For business owners and c-suites this is not an issue, but most are employees, their income does not increase as much as price do. No wonder Dacia is the most successful Renault-Nissan brand in Europe.

I agree there is a place for low-priced brands like Dacia, but vehicles are not necessarily overpriced when you consider not only all the safety-features that the Government requires, but the seemingly endless number of comfort/convenience items that customers themselves demand. Even entry-level vehicles, today, are expected to do just about everything but drive themselves......and, in the not-distant future, will probably also be doing that, too. 😉

 

[mikeavelli]

Notice one thing interesting, however.

No brand, regardless of price, got more than 3 out of 5 in value. That tells me that many people think that today's vehicles, across the board, are overpriced. Personally, I don't agree with that view, but apparently many potential buyers do.

Yeah I think that’s a complaint everyone agrees on. Car prices have generally skyrocketed.

 

[mmcartalk]

Yeah I think that’s a complaint everyone agrees on. Car prices have generally skyrocketed.

Car prices, today, though, have to be looked at through the eyes of inflation in general, and what you get for the money. Yes, they are expensive, but so is the amount of equipment on the vehicles that comes with them. Today's entry level vehicles (my Encore GX is a good example) routinely come with things that were unavailable even on luxury vehicles not that long ago. And, although there are certainly plenty of exceptions, and a lot of people are having trouble making ends meet, many of us, today, make more than we did in the past. Monthly car-payments are also sometimes lower, because of the length of many auto-loans stretched out to as long a 6 or 7 years.

So, as I see it, yes, the days of 10K new vehicles are gone, but so are the days of 10K worth of equipment that you get with them.

 

[Ian Schmidt]

Today's entry level vehicles (my Encore GX is a good example) routinely come with things that were unavailable even on luxury vehicles not that long ago.

This is definitely worth noting. I saw an article over the weekend about a Lincoln concept from the early 80s that had satellite navigation, tire pressure monitoring, and several other features that are kind of ho-hum now but were crazy exotic in 1982/83. Closer to the current day, a base 2021 Camry has more features than my '01 GS300 did.

 

[Gecko]

Kind of a different topic, but no matter how much features have changed over the years, to @Levi's point, real wages for Americans have not nearly kept pace with inflation or the price of a new home or car. So, enter: 6 and 7 year auto loans, increased leasing, more loan defaults, less home and vehicle ownership, etc.

Automakers are in business, of course, so they have to do what they have to do to make money. But when I was getting a car at 16 years old, a new Corolla was $16k, a RAV4 was $20k, a Camry was $22k, a 4Runner was $30k and a GS was $40k.

Fast forward a decade and a half and the average price for a Corolla is $23k, a RAV4 is $34k, a Camry is $29k, a 4Runner is $43k and a GS was $58k.

Is the average person making 40-50% more in salary now than they were then -- to keep pace with those prices? As a whole, definitely not. And yes, we have new cheaper options like the Yaris or C-HR, and cheaper brands like KIA or Nissan... but a lot of those products are very small, which is a limiting factor for some (me included.)

The system is quite broken. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class is evaporating... but despite all of that, automotive brands have to keep their businesses alive and consistent with the pace of the industry, which is only accelerating car prices with things like safety and infotainment technology.

It's a matter for another thread, but in the age of a $60k 3 series, $85k E class or $120k Escalade, I think Lexus is wisely plotting a path ahead by offering nice cars with the luxury and features people like and without the type of customization and options that send prices through the roof. Has Lexus done that intentionally, or is it a result of their lack of product advancement? I have no idea and you could make an argument either way, but I really think that at some point, this consumerism bubble is going to burst and Lexus will be well positioned as a rational, logical luxury brand who offers nice cars for good money. The pricing of Germans and the others is simply exorbitant. You can get a nice ES for $43k out the door. With similar options (looped into packages), a 5 Series or E Class will run you into the territory of $70k+... much the same argument with a 30-40-50% price differential can be made for many Lexus models. Can you really tell me that a 540i is worth the price of nearly two ES 350s? Or a GLE worth nearly two RXs?

I recall a stat that for the first time ever, in 2020, the average transaction price for a new car was a hair over $40k. Does anyone remember the days when people used to say that "real" luxury cars are those over $40k? Ha!

 

[mmcartalk]

Does anyone remember the days when people used to say that "real" luxury cars are those over $40k? Ha!

When the original Lexus LS400 debuted, it listed for around 35K without options. But most vehicles, back then, were not providing the level of features/equipment they do today. The government was not mandating as much safety equipment. Customers were not as demanding on having so many convenience-features. And one must also take 30 years of general inflation in the economy into account.

 

[Levi]

I don't have internal managerial accounting numbers, but cost reduction strategy must have by far compensated all the extra costs mandated by government regarding safety equipment. So that is not an excuse for current high car prices.
Car manufacturers are slowly going one step further by selling the whole hardware and billing extra on the software, which has no cost once development done.