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The score factors in road-test performance, reliability and owner satisfaction from surveys, and safety
No single attribute makes a car truly great by itself. That’s why Consumer Reports has always rated each car using a group of assessments, either data-driven or drawn from the experiences of our testers and members.
Cutting through all that information can be demanding for a car shopper who’s short on time. CR combines its test and survey findings into a convenient Overall Score to help our members quickly find the best cars, SUVs, and trucks to suit their needs.
“Our Overall Score is the only way to see the full picture of how a car stacks up,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports. “There are many sources to find out if a car is nice to drive, but CR’s Overall Score goes far deeper. Safety and reliability are key components in addition to performance in our rigorous tests.”
Learn how Consumer Reports tests cars.
Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports
Every car we test gets a score that encapsulates four key factors: road test, reliability, owner satisfaction, and safety.
1. Our road-test program looks at how vehicles perform in the real world. We run roughly 50 new cars and trucks each year through more than 50 tests at our 327-acre test facility in Colchester, Conn. Those tests include acceleration, braking, emergency handling, and fuel economy, among others. We also evaluate usability, fit and finish, noise, ride, and safety systems. For electric vehicles, we consider factors such as speed and ease of charging, and range.
2. We survey Consumer Reports members to predict the reliability for new cars. Every year, we collect detailed information on their experiences with hundreds of thousands of cars. The data is presented online from among 20 key trouble areas.
3. Owner satisfaction is based on whether a CR member would definitely get the same car if they had a chance to do it over again, effectively measuring whether a car lived up to its owner’s expectations. In our exclusive Auto Survey, owners also rate their cars for the driving experience, comfort, and value.
4. Safety ratings include crash-test data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), if they’ve been conducted. We also take into account IIHS’ front crash prevention tests for pedestrian. We give extra credit to vehicles that have advanced safety systems that have been shown to reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths when they are offered as standard equipment across all trim levels of a model.
We take points away from cars with active driving assistance that lack an effective driver monitoring system.
And we add points for cars that come standard with both blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning, and deduct points when they don’t.
Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports Photo: John Powers/Consumer Reports
The Overall Score is not static. As new testing, reliability, owner satisfaction, and safety data become available, the scores will be updated on CR.org. That means members should always check the website for the most current assessment of what makes the best-driving, most reliable, most satisfying, and safest cars.
See the latest CR car ratings.
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• Most and Least Loved Car Brands
• Who Makes the Most Reliable New Cars?
• Which Brands Make the Best Used Cars?
• Which Car Brands Have the Highest Road-Test Scores?
• Who Owns Which Car Brands?
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