According to Consumer Reports rankings, this is the most satisfying car brand to drive – Jalopnik

What makes driving a car pleasant? It may seem like a complicated, subjective topic, but Consumer Reports it comes down to just one question: “Based on price, performance, reliability, comfort, fun, etc., if you had the chance to do it again, would you buy the same vehicle?” Consumer Reports’ overall satisfaction score is the percentage of people who answered “yes” to this question in CR’s member surveys. (The data provides a more detailed breakdown that we’ll discuss below.)

And it certainly seems like Rivian is doing a great job at creating repeat customers: It’s the No. 1 brand in Consumer Reports’ most recent consumer satisfaction ratings. It was the third year in a row that Rivian took the spot (with BMW in second place all three times), despite Rivian’s history of last-place reliability scores. Which it did again this year. The top 10 was completed in descending order by Subaru, Tesla, Ford, Genesis, Lexus, Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet, and – interestingly – Genesis and Chevrolet also joined Rivian in the bottom 10 of the list. CR Reliability rankings of 26 brands.

However, note that only brands with at least two models with a ‘statistically valid’ number of survey responses were taken into account, leaving Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lucid, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Polestar and Porsche out of the satisfaction rankings. Rivian, for its part, has seen its R1S SUV and R1T pickup fully tested by CR, while the smaller R2 SUV has been given the quick-take treatment.

CR digs a little deeper to provide rankings in the categories of comfort, ride, cabin storage, practicality and cost of ownership, and Rivian backed up its overall No. 1 ranking by leading in two of them: comfort and practicality. The first refers to a combination of cabin comfort and the driving experience, while the second refers to the ease of use of the controls.

So it’s no surprise to hear that CR has considered the 2026 Rivian’s cockpits R1S And R1T to boast “excellent attention to detail” and “a premium, high-tech look.” When we reviewed the high-end 2026 Rivian R1T and R1S quad bike models, our Collin Woodard raved about the “ridiculously nice” interior, noting, for example, that “many of the lower parts that would be bare plastic even in many luxury cars are instead covered in [vegan] learn.”

The usability results were a bit of a surprise, since many of Rivian’s controls need to be accessed via touchscreens, which, as people are starting to realize, is the wrong technology for vehicle interfaces. Additionally, CR’s experts gave the R1S and R1T their lowest usability rating; the satisfaction scores are based on driver input.

For what it’s worth, Rivian appears to be one of the brands rethinking touchscreens and bringing back buttons. A recent patent filing shows an unnamed Rivian dashboard that allows drivers to use not only buttons for key functions, but also dials and a slider.

Rivian ranked second in the driving category, which looks at performance and handling, but with another somewhat strange result. The highest-ranked brand here is one that many owners seem to hate operating themselves. Yes, Tesla’s alleged self-driving technology hasn’t prevented it from overtaking Rivian. The leader in cabin storage was Ram – Rivian was No. 5 – and Tesla and Rivian were 1-2 in cost of ownership, which includes things like fuel and repairs. That ownership ranking is even more of a surprise when you consider that Rivian was last in terms of reliability.

Ultimately, this meant that Rivian was the only brand in the top six of all five individual satisfaction categories. By comparison, BMW only scored that high in the ride and comfort segments, despite being No. 2 overall. Meanwhile, Tesla appeared in all categories except comfort, finishing in fourth place overall.

And that brings us to one final data point that wasn’t mentioned when CR explained its satisfaction scores – although it’s something shoppers should definitely be aware of. It turns out that if you examine the individual CR ratings for the Rivian R1S and R1T, the only two vehicles fully tested by Consumer Reports at this stage, you’ll see the predicted values ​​based on whether drivers think they got what they expected for what they paid, and were only considered “fair.” And the R1S ranked sixth among the eight CR three-row EV SUVs tested, while the R1T was fourth among the four all-electric pickups. Like the range of those vehicles, your mileage will undoubtedly vary in terms of real-world satisfaction.