If there’s one thing that fans of ’80s and ’90s BMWs know is an irrefutable fact, it’s that ever since Chris Bangle got his grubby little paws on the German automaker’s designs, everything there is to love about BMW has been ruined. Ask the folks over at Consumer Reports, though, and they would beg to differ. CR has just released its annual brand rankings for the year, and wouldn’t you know it, BMW came out on top.
Yes, you read that right. According to Consumer Reports, BMW currently has the best lineup of any automaker that sells cars in the U.S. This was determined based on each individual model’s Overall Score, which combines how it performed in CR’s road test with its safety, reliability and owner satisfaction scores. So not only does an automaker have to build cars that are above average to stand out, but it has to do so consistently across every vehicle that it sells.
Jaguar and Land Rover, perhaps unsurprisingly, fared poorly here, losing out only to 34th place Jeep. Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz also did poorly, placing 28th and 29th respectively, while Cadillac, Genesis and Infiniti ended up clustered in about the middle at 14th, 15th and 16th place. It’s also worth pointing out that Genesis fell eight spots since last year’s brand rankings. Audi and Acura did better, coming in 11th and 12th but still couldn’t crack the top 10.
As far as BMW competitors in the top 10 go, Lexus came in 5th with a score of 78, and Porsche came in 3rd with an 80, shooting up 11 spots this year. At the very top, though, sits BMW with a score of 82. BMW also earned the top overall road test score at 88, beating out Porsche’s 84 and Audi’s 85, and CR recommends all 12 of the models it tested.
That said, it doesn’t appear that CR judged styling as part of this particular comparison, and if it had, we suspect BMW would have fared worse. Still, with the top overall score, the top road test score and both above-average reliability and owner satisfaction, BMW does make a solid case for itself. At least as long as you can get past how so many of its cars look.