Fast facts:
- Consumer Reports is an almost-90-year-old nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that tests and reviews important staple products like cars and appliances.
- Each car model is given an overall score based on road test results, owner satisfaction, reliability, and safety. These scores are averaged across all of an automaker’s models to create an overall score for each car brand. Scores change each year based on CR’s evaluation of that year’s models.
- Auto brands’ rankings change annually as each year’s models are evaluated.
- Based on Consumer Reports’ latest roundup, two of the five car brands with the lowest scores are American and have the same (non-American) parent company.
For most working people, a car is likely the second most important product they own or lease, after their residence. And while not all Americans drive regularly, the vast majority do, with just 10 percent of the adult population saying they seldom or rarely drive a car, according to the Pew Research Center.
Drivers spend an average of around an hour per day behind the wheel, according to AAA, so the choice of which vehicle to purchase or lease shouldn’t necessarily be made lightly, especially given the danger inherent to motor vehicles and roadways. After all, over 16,000 car accidents occur daily in the U.S. on average, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
In addition to safety, reliability is also a top concern for car buyers — the more frequent and severe a car’s mechanical problems, the more money its owner is going to have to shell out over the years to keep it running safely and effectively.
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With this in mind, car shoppers should be wary of automakers whose current lineups lag behind their peers in terms of safety, reliability, and handling. Consumer Reports, a non-profit product testing firm that has been evaluating cars for decades, can shed some light on how today’s biggest auto brands compare, quality-wise, across all of their available new models.
What is Consumer Reports & how does it evaluate automakers?
Consumer Reports has been testing big-ticket consumer products like cars and appliances for safety and efficacy since 1936. Today, the organization is headquartered in New York State, where it operates a massive facility of labs in which it tests most types of products. Outside of the New York facility, CR also maintains a dedicated, 327-acre private driving course and auto testing facility in rural Connecticut.
CR purchases new car models anonymously and at full price before putting them to the test on its course, evaluating each vehicle for everything from braking, acceleration, and handling to comfort, dash controls, and emissions.
Related: 5 cheaper new cars recommended by Consumer Reports
In addition to testing vehicles directly, CR also surveys its millions of members each year about their own cars and any problems they’ve encountered. By collating this information over time and across countless owners, CR is able to create predictive reliability scores, indicating how reliable a given model is likely to be over the long term. The overall score awarded to each car model takes into account its safety results, road test score, and predicted reliability score (based on owner satisfaction surveys).
Each year, CR averages the overall scores for each new model offered by each car brand to assign one score to each automaker that represents the average performance of the cars in its lineup.
What to know about the car brands on this list
Below, we examine the five automakers that scored lowest on average in this year’s review. It’s important to note, however, that some automakers, like Rivian, produce far fewer models than other automakers, like Toyota, which can result in a single, low-scoring model skewing its average score more heavily. Most of the automakers in the bottom five have relatively few models.
As a side note, Rivian is one of the lowest-ranking brands based on CR’s data, but Rivian owners love their cars. In fact, Rivian ranks higher in owner satisfaction than any other automaker based on Consumer Reports’ survey results.
In other words, always take these sorts of rankings with a grain of salt and consult multiple sources before making important purchase decisions.
Related: 6 U.S.-assembled cars that minimize tariffs according to Consumer Reports
In addition to ranking lowest in overall safety, reliability, and owner satisfaction on average, none of these five automakers produced a single new vehicle that earned Consumer Reports’ coveted “CR recommended badge,” a special designation that Consumer Reports gives to cars that meet or exceed its expectations for safety, reliability, and owner satisfaction.
The 5 lowest-scoring automakers based on Consumer Reports data
Without further ado, these are the five lowest-scoring car brands according to Consumer Reports, with the worst-ranked automaker listed last.
Dodge
- Parent company: Stellantis
- 2025 base models available: 3
Dodge has long been known for its stylish and powerful muscle car lineup, but these days, its vehicles tend to underperform their peers in crash tests. Used Dodge vehicles rank third-to-last in reliability accoring to Consumer Reports data.
GMC
- Parent company: General Motors
- 2025 base models available: 5
GMC vehicles are modified Chevrolet models, often with more luxury features or alternative styling options. GMC ranks better than Dodge in terms of reliability, but not by much.
Land Rover
- Parent company: Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors
- 2025 base models available: 3
Land Rover, considered by some the original and ultimate off-road adventure vehicle brand, pioneered the luxury SUV category. Despite the brand’s high prices and popularity among wealthy drivers, they are the most expensive cars to maintain according to Consumer Reports’ survey results.
Related: The most satisfying new cars & SUVs, according to Consumer Reports
Rivian
- Parent company: Rivian Automotive
- 2025 base models available: 2
Rivian, a relatively young automaker, manufactures electric vehicles exclusively, including electric delivery vans used by Amazon, but these aren’t available for purchase by the public. The brand offers two models, an electric SUV and an electric pickup, and both are loved by their owners, as mentioned above. Nevertheless, Rivian ranks quite low in predicted reliability according to CR.
Jeep
- Parent company: Stellantis
- 2025 base models available: 3
Jeep, the brand that scored lowest overall across CR’s data, is probably best known for its Wrangler model, which has long been a top pick of off-road enthusiasts looking to tackle tough terrain and climb rocky slopes. All of Jeep’s models tend to score low on reliability scales and owner satisfaction surveys, but the brand remains popular and retains a cult following nevertheless. According to CR, “Low reliability scores across the brand make it difficult to recommend buying a used Jeep.”
Related: The 10 best compact crossover SUVs according to Consumer Reports
