As per tradition, Consumer Reports recently published its ranking of the best choices for automotive consumers in 2022. The magazine’s Top 10 model picks for 2022 were chosen for their ability to impress in terms of performance, safety, reliability and more.
What’s more, vehicles had to be equipped with standard forward collision warning and highway-speed automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, features CR obviously considers a baseline for safety in 2022.
Top brands
The annual report card also reveals the best car brands in 2022, as determined by CR. Subaru takes top honours this year, supplanting Mazda, top performer in 2021. Says CR, “The brand report card scores are derived from evaluations including road tests, reliability, owner satisfaction, safety features and crash-test results if available.” Here are the top 10 brands, as ranked by Consumer Reports:
1- Subaru
2- Mazda
3- BMW
4- Honda
5- Lexus
6- Audi
7- Porsche
8- Mini
9- Toyota
10- Infiniti
Top models
In ranking each model’s performance, the magazine’s experts looked at a number of factors, including road-test performance, predicted reliability, owner satisfaction, safety and environmental friendliness.
Here then are the models that could well make your short list this winter and spring if you’re in the market for a new vehicle:
Small Car: Nissan Sentra - Our review
Subcompact SUV: Nissan Rogue Sport (Qashqai)
Small SUV: Subaru Forester - Our review
Midsize Sedan: Honda Accord - Our review
Hybrid: Toyota Prius / Prius Prime - Our review
Two-Row SUV: Toyota RAV4 Prime - Our review
Three-Row SUV: Kia Telluride - Our review
Compact Pickup Truck: Honda Ridgeline
Electric Vehicle: Ford Mustang Mach-E - Our review
Luxury Midsize SUV: Lexus RX
By restricting itself to 10 categories, Consumer Reports is obviously leaving out entire slices of the marketplace – where is the Luxury Compact SUV segment, for example – and fitting some models into categories that seem slightly illogical – we’re not sure by what measure the Forester can be considered a small SUV.
But no matter, rankings like this do serve well as general signposts to consumers looking to narrow down their shopping lists to manageable levels.
Happy shopping!
