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

Mazda has just led Consumer Reports’ annual ranking of the most trusted automotive brands for the first time.

Mazda’s sales in North America grew last year, despite the Covid pandemic, thanks to the popularity of its CX-9 seven-seater sport utility vehicle and the CX-30 crossover.

BMW, Subaru, Porsche and Honda completed the top five positions in the 2021 Consumer Brand Report, released on Thursday.

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

To determine ratings, Consumer Reports purchases vehicles anonymously from dealerships for road testing. It performs braking, handling, comfort, convenience, safety and fuel economy tests and includes responses from surveys by Consumer Reports subscribers in its analysis.

In 2020, Porsche and Genesis (which is owned by Hyundai) led the bulletin. Genesis dropped 13 positions this year “due to the expected decline in reliability between its models,” said Consumer Reports.

Lincoln saw the worst falls in the ranking, dropping 15 positions to 28th. Consumer Reports noted that the brand’s redesigned sport utility vehicles, the Aviator and Corsair, performed well in road tests, but had “far below average reliability”.

Last year’s largest American-owned car brand, Tesla, dropped five positions to land at 16.

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

In the United States, Tesla recently issued a voluntary recall of tens of thousands of its older vehicles, Model S and Model X, due to flaws in the touch screen that pose a safety risk to drivers. In November, Tesla also recalled about 9,500 Model X and Y vehicles due to faulty roof trim and screws.

Tesla scored high on owner satisfaction and performed well on road tests, Consumer Reports said. But only Model 3, Tesla’s most affordable electric sedan, had reliability and overall scores high enough to be recommended to drivers by Consumer Reports.

Behind Tesla were Mini, Kia and Volkswagen, who followed in Tesla’s footsteps and now offer pure battery electricity.

At the end of Consumer Reports’ 2021 ranking were Mitsubishi, Land Rover and, lastly, Alfa Romeo. Alfa Romeo dropped 5 places because of “worsening reliability” and poor road test performance, Consumer Reports said.

– CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.

Correction: This story has been revised to correct that the Mazda CX-9 has seven seats and the CX-30 is a compact crossover.