Best and Worst New Cars

10 Top Picks of 2018: Best Cars of the Year
The best new cars of 2018 are outstanding all-around performers—shown to be reliable, safe, and satisfying. That means they have scored high in our stringent track tests and extensive owner surveys. They have won our admiration, and we recommend them with confidence.

Best Cars in Our Tests
Each vehicle is put through a battery of tests at our track to determine its performance, and some models stand out while others do not. Our best and worst cars list highlights the overall top scorers in our ratings and those at the bottom of the list.

Highest-Scoring American Vehicles
There are many ways to view the Consumer Reports ratings to find the highest-rated vehicle in a given category or price range. But we get many questions from journalists and our readers regarding the best current American-branded vehicles. To answer that query, we sorted vehicles into 13 key categories.

Best New Cars Under $30,000
To assist bargain hunters, we have assembled the best new cars and SUVs under $30,000, based on their Overall Score, factoring road test performance, owner satisfaction, predicted reliability, and safety.

Best All-Wheel-Drive Cars
When winter’s wrath hits hard, a car with all-wheel drive is your best bet to help navigate the roads safely. You can find AWD in a variety of vehicle categories. See which one is right for you.

Best & Worst Third-Row Seats
Not all third rows are easy to access, nor fit for adult passengers, as our testing has shown. To help in choosing the right three-row model for your needs, we highlight below those models that shined in our tests

Top Pick Tires for 2018
The best all-season, performance, and snow tires for cars, SUVs, and trucks. 

The Most Fuel-Efficient Cars
Fuel economy is an important factor to consider when buying a new car, even when gas prices are down—they won't stay that way forever.

The Most Fuel-Efficient SUVs
SUVs are very versatile vehicles for transporting passengers and cargo, and now you don't have to sacrifice fuel economy to get the space you want. Many SUVs now have fuel economy on par with large sedans.  

Best & Worst Fuel Economy
With high gas prices and a tight economy, drivers need to find relief at the pump. If you’re buying a new car, a fuel-efficient model can save you hundreds of dollars per year over a gas guzzler.

Best & Worst Acceleration
How fast a vehicle will accelerate is not something that should be of concern only to driving enthusiasts. Being able to merge safely with fast-moving traffic is important regardless of how or what you drive.

Best Safety Performance
A vehicle with good braking and emergency handling can help you avoid an accident. Typically smaller, sportier vehicles perform well in these tests, and larger trucks tend to be slower to maneuver.

Car Reliability
This year’s survey saw the rise of luxury brands, a mixed bag for Japanese brands, and some reliability stumbles by stalwarts.

Car Brands Reliability
We saw a significant shuffling of car brands as we scrutinized this year’s data. Our brand-level rankings are based on an average predicted-reliability score across each brand’s model line.

10 Most Reliable Cars
Purchasing a car is a long-term investment, with the expectation that the car will provide dependable transportation for the long haul. But as our surveys show, not all cars can fulfill that promise.

10 Least Reliable Cars
Our comprehensive annual auto reliability survey shows that some buyers will be taking their brand-new car back to the dealer’s service department sooner and more often than other car buyers will.

Owner Satisfaction: Cars That Owners Love and Hate
Our exclusive survey reveals the cars, SUVs, and trucks that deliver performance and pleasure for the long haul.

10 Most Satisfying Cars
The models that bring their owners joy.

10 Least Satisfying Cars 
These models stand out for their disappointment.

Car Brands Ranked by Owner Satisfaction
Car owners tell us about the brands they love—and the ones they don’t.