Consumer Reports: Toyota, Subaru Make the Most Reliable Cars

Sean Tucker 12/05/2025 11:46am

Toyota, Subaru, and Lexus top the 2025 edition of Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings
The company found more issues with EVs and PHEVs than with hybrids or gas-powered cars

Toyota regained the top spot in Consumer Reports’ list of the most reliable car brands in 2025. The company has often topped CR’s chart. But last year, it fell to second behind Subaru. This year, the two swapped places. Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand took third this year.

CR’s Methods Are Different

The magazine surveys its own readers, which creates a sort of reinforcement spiral for brands they like

Several publications and consumer groups test new car reliability. Consumer Reports takes a different approach than most, making its results useful but also limited.

The magazine surveys its readers about the vehicles they own and what problems they’ve experienced with them. That feedback gives CR a deep well of data on specific brands and very little on others. If the readers trust the magazine and buy what it recommends, it will often cover just a segment of the automotive market.

Some brands, like Dodge, Infiniti, and Porsche, don’t appear in the rankings at all because not enough CR owners have bought one for the magazine to have reliability data.

EVs, PHEVs Have More Issues; Hybrids Do Not

EVs and PHEVs had more reliability problems, but hybrids did not

As you might expect, automakers are pretty good at building gas-powered cars now that some have a century of experience at it. Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) are newer technologies and more problem-prone.

“However, hybrid models, which don’t require plugging in, continue to shine as reliable choices that also typically deliver excellent fuel economy,” CR says.

Old Advice Still Holds – Avoid the First Production Year

CR recommends shoppers avoid new and redesigned cars

CR renews one of the oldest pieces of advice in the car shopping world for 2025. “If you want to avoid reliability issues, don’t buy an all-new or redesigned model,” the magazine says.

“Even the second-year examples of a new model can have issues. When a car has a low score in its first year, it sometimes takes its automaker more time to address the problems,” CR writes. The Mazda CX-70 and CX-90, the magazine says, “remain unreliable in their second year, as do the Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Blazer EV and Colorado, and the GMC Canyon.”

The Scores:

To build its rankings, CR says, it says, it required “data for at least two models, from a minimum of two of the 2023, 2024, 2025, or early 2026 model years.” The magazine surveyed owners about problems they had in the last 12 months. They then “weigh the severity of each type of problem and its impact on the owner, including expenses and the ability to drive safely. From that, we create a predicted reliability score for each new model, ranging from one to 100.”

Rank	Brand	Predicted Reliability Score (100-point scale)
1	Toyota	66
2	Subaru	63
3	Lexus	60
4	Honda	59
5	BMW	58
6	Nissan	57
7	Acura	54
8	Buick	51
9	Tesla	50
10	Kia	49
11	Ford	48
12	Hyundai	48
13	Audi	44
14	Mazda	43
15	Volvo	42
16	Volkswagen	42
17	Chevrolet	42
18	Cadillac	41
19	Mercedes-Benz	41
20	Lincoln	40
21	Genesis	33
22	Chrysler	31
23	GMC	31
24	Jeep	28
25	Ram	26
26	Rivian	24