It’s Official: ‘Consumer Reports’ Says Porsche Is the Best
Top spot captured from Subaru and Genesis thanks to great driveability and years of consistent improvement.
Each February around this time, Consumer Reports churns through the masses of data it collects both from its members and its own in-house testing and then publishes its annual ranking of the best auto brands. Late last week, it released this year’s results and they bring very good news indeed for Porsche and its fans.
Porsche’s cars have long been popular with Consumer Reports and its readers thanks to a combination of solid on-road performance, good reliability and safety, and high customer satisfaction. It most recently reentered the list in 2015 with a sixth-place result, after being absent for some time due to insufficient data. The following year, Porsche climbed to fourth place before peaking at second in 2017.
For 2018’s index, Porsche’s cars scored within one point of their previous result, but fierce competition nevertheless saw them fall to fifth place in the overall rankings. Last year, they fought back to take second place, though, and the champagne will doubtless be flowing back at the company’s Stuttgart headquarters as it now takes the overall win for 2020.
This year’s victory for Porsche caps off a five-year stretch in the top five, a feat that has only been equaled in that time by Lexus. (And the latter hasn’t managed better than third place overall for five years, while Porsche has now scored both a win and a second place.)
Porsche’s overall score of 86 points is also the highest achieved by any brand for at least a decade, by an impressive five-point margin. And even more impressively, it was achieved despite unusually strong competition. Ordinarily, Genesis’ score of 84 points would’ve been enough to take a comfortable win, but Porsche still pipped its rival by a two-point margin.
Not surprisingly, the primary reason for Porsche’s win is its on-road performance, which goes hand-in-hand with the smile it puts on your face. Although it was narrowly beaten by Mazda on predicted reliability, and by Genesis in owner satisfaction, Porsche still turned in solid results in both. And its road test score of 89 was higher than that scored by any other brand, with eighth-place overall BMW being the closest performer in real-world testing.
Consumer Reports purchased and tested three Porsche vehicles for this year’s rankings, including a 2019 Porsche Cayenne, and recommended all three to its readers. Only two other brands — Genesis and Mazda — saw all of their tested vehicles receive a recommendation.
Overall, Porsche’s nearest rival in this year’s rankings was Audi, which slipped slightly to sixth place. BMW took eighth, and Mercedes continued its years-long decline in the rankings, landing all the way down in 20th position.
