BMW tops Consumer Reports' auto brand rankings for second year
For the second consecutive year, Consumer Reports has named BMW (BMWYY) the top overall auto brand by Consumer Reports. According to Yahoo Finance's autos reporter Pras Subramanian, BMW excelled across categories like road test scores, predicted reliability, and customer satisfaction to earn the first spot ranking.
Hybrids dominated this year's top picks list, occupying six out of the 10 spots. Subaru (FUJHY) took the number two spot, affirming its reputation for value and reliability.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
JULIE HYMAN: Back to back wins for BMW. Consumer Reports naming the automaker its top overall pick in the 2024 brand report car rankings. With more on other winners and losers and what was so great about BMW for that matter, let's bring in Pras Subramanian. So how-- BMW, what is it doing right and what are some of the others as well?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: You know, I shared this story amongst some friends of mine in the industry, and everyone's surprised. BMW, what? They can't believe that they are on top. But this is two in a row-- two years in a row. And you look at the categories that Consumer Reports, like we said, they actually-- they buy every car. They don't get any freebies. They test everything.
And they're looking at things like road test scores, predicted reliability, customer satisfaction, safety. And BMW-- the new BMWs are really killing it right now in those categories. And actually, customers are happy. They're not having to go into their service centers and get them fixed. So--
JULIE HYMAN: Why were people surprised?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I think the stereotype of BMW is that it's a very nice luxury car, but they break down a lot. They're really high maintenance, because they're so high strung, right? They require a lot of babying. And I think that's-- you can see the comments in the article. Mine was always in the shop for three months, and I have it for one month and back in the shop. So that's the reputation that sort of overhangs the brand.
But clearly, right now, it's changing, you know. And just real quick, the top five are going to be are Subaru, which is not surprising, Porsche, which also surprised me, but those cars tend to make their owners happy, Honda and Lexus, which is not surprising.
JOSH LIPTON: So those are makes and models that made the top 10 car list, Pras?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: The makes of the brand report card, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
JOSH LIPTON: And I was asking you this off camera, but I'm just curious myself, is there any kind of correlation, do you think, between this report-- because it is, as you said, it is very well-respected. People look at it. I'm just curious like any kind of correlation between this and like, OK, actual sales?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I haven't seen any data, but I have to-- I have to agree that there has to be a lift on the sales point of view with these cars or these brands noted on these lists, because CR is so highly respected and people see that as the Bible for, not just cars, but dishwashers and everything else that they review. So I think there has to be a little bit of a lift there based on these numbers.
JOSH LIPTON: All right. So bottom line, which makes and models made the top 10 car list?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So overall, they do a category-based top 10 list best SUV, best small car, best pickup, et cetera. And one of the big takeaways this year was that six out of the 10 were hybrids. One was a pure EV, the Tesla Model Y. The other three were regular gas-powered cars.
And the big takeaway, CI talked to one of their analysts there. And he told me about how the hybrids, like cars like the Camry Hybrid, the Prius Hybrid, the Maverick Hybrid, they actually perform better than their equivalent gas-powered cars. They're smoother, more power. They're not as noisy and inefficient as the old hybrids of the past, right? We associate them with like econoboxes that were not very fun. These hybrids actually have performance. They drive better, they're quieter, and--
JULIE HYMAN: Does Subaru make a hybrid?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I have to check on that. But I don't think they do.
JULIE HYMAN: I just was noticing it wasn't listed on the cars there. And I think of Subaru as such a like, for lack of a better word, sort of a granola-ey kind of car, right? So it's interesting.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: They actually-- I believe they don't. I got to double check that. But they have a kind of a relationship with Toyota. It's like their main overseer. And they have a Solterra, which is based on a Toyota EV. But no hybrid tech. And whereas Toyota is killing it with hybrids, right, so you think there might be some trickling there, but not yet.
JOSH LIPTON: Granola-ey, I like that.
JULIE HYMAN: That's my-- crunchy.
JOSH LIPTON: I like that. That's good marketing.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Vermont, Colorado, all that stuff.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.
JOSH LIPTON: Pras, thank you. Appreciate it.
