Consumer Reports Warns Car Buyers to Think Long and Hard Before Shopping at These Automakers – Jalopnik

As the old saying goes, there are those who see the glass as half full, and others who see it as half empty. So when Consumer Reports (CR) publishes an article about which brands make the best cars, the “half empty” group will likely use the data to focus on which brands make the worst cars. But that information can be important for both pessimists and optimists to know, because it can help them cross potential rides off their shopping list if they want a better chance of avoiding buyer’s remorse.

To arrive at the ratings – with Alfa Romeo, Dodge, GMC, Land Rover and Jeep coming in at the bottom – CR looked at the average overall vehicle score of each brand’s entries, taking into account performance, reliability, satisfaction and safety. In addition, at least two vehicles of a given make had to be tested before that make could be included here.

Consumer Reports also mentions that, in general, “for any brand, all-new models tend to pose reliability risks.” The reverse is also true; think about Lincoln. Ford’s luxury division rose 17 places in the rankings, “in part because its legacy product line has become more reliable.” If you are considering purchasing a specific vehicle, you should look at its own unique CR data. After all, it’s possible that even a low-ranking brand could have a high-ranking vehicle, although not a single entry from the bottom five brands was recommended by the website before 2025.

There may even be outliers among vehicles with low overall CR scores, such as the 120,000-mile Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio for sale earlier this year. That’s a lot of miles for a car that ranks last in predicted reliability in its class through 2025. Drivers often enjoy the Guilia when it’s on the road. When we got our hands on one in 2023, we said the Giulia is better than you think, thanks in part to its excellently tuned chassis and powerful 2.0-liter turbo engine. On the other hand, it is difficult to measure reliability during a short test drive on the road.

The Giulia with the worst ratings in its class was joined by the 2026 Alfa Romeo Tonale compact SUV, which scored a lower overall score and a lower predicted reliability rating than the nine other entry-level luxury SUVs in its CR segment. Furthermore, this is a case where a few years of production has not added much to reliability. The Tonale was based on what Consumer Reports mentioned the same “aging platform” as the “disappointing” SUVs from Jeep and Dodge – which helps explain why those brands also fared so poorly on the list. The only Alfa Romeo tested by CR that did not finish last in its segment was the Alfa Romeo Stelvio, which was only better than four other luxury compact SUVs.

Next up (or down in this case) is another Stellantis brand: Dodge. Technically, this division had the same overall score as Alfa Romeo, and – as we just mentioned – it has almost the same entry-level SUV as its Italian corporate cousin (and Jeep). The Dodge version, the Hornet, gets separate listings for the gasoline-only model and the plug-in hybrid. The former scored noticeably lower than the latter, but neither achieved great results. In a class of 29 compact SUVs, the plug-in Hornet ranked 25th and the non-electrified Hornet ranked 27th.

CR had not yet fully tested the Dodge Durango or the Dodge Charger, but does include a predicted reliability score in its quick assessment of the former. Unfortunately, Dodge’s long-running SUV was buried behind fourteen other three-row midsizers in that sense. Those kinds of scores aren’t likely to change anytime soon, either, as the next-generation Dodge Durango won’t debut until 2029 after the current car’s 19-year production run. It’s not all bad news for the SUV, though, as all 2026 Dodge Durangos have a Hemi, although shoppers in some states can only get models with the smaller 5.7-liter mill.

GMC advertises professional vehicles, but Consumer Reports wasn’t very impressed. CR gave GMC the same low overall score as Alfa Romeo and Dodge, and withheld its recommendations from all GMC vehicles tested. What’s perhaps more surprising is that CR gave a slight edge in the overall scores to some Chevrolet versions of the GMC range. For example, the Equinox and the Suburban scored slightly better overall scores than the Terrain and the Yukon XL.

While these examples are separated by only a few points, the Chevrolet Traverse in turn had a significantly higher overall score than the GMC Acadia, buoyed by predicted reliability that was more than twice that of its GMC counterpart. In fact, the Acadia’s predicted reliability lagged behind the scores of more than two dozen other SUVs. In terms of pickup, the GMC Sierra 1500 and Canyon ranked higher than the Chevy Silverado 1500 and Colorado – and the Ram 1500 – but they couldn’t overtake the Ford F-150 or the Ford Ranger.

Ultimately, GMC finished 29th out of 31 brands in the CR rankings, and 16th out of 17 when it comes to mainstream, non-luxury brands. Note that none of GMC’s EVs were fully tested by CR when this list was published, but if you’re looking to buy one, now might be a good time. Dealers recently sold brand new 2024 Hummer EVs at discounts of over $40,000.

Consumer Reports doesn’t matter when it comes to describing Land Rover. After first nodding to its impressive history of off-road capabilities and luxurious cabins, the website says that today Land Rover maintains its reputation for building SUVs that break down “often and expensively.” Ouch. A look at CR’s numbers tells the story, with the brand ranking last among all other luxury competitors. Additionally, the Discovery Sport, Discovery and Defender ranked at the back of their CR segments, with the Range Rover Evoque only managing to outpace the Discovery Sport in its segment.

CR goes on to reveal exactly how much it could cost you to keep a Land Rover on the road. When the publication ranked brands based on maintenance and repair costs over time, Land Rover once again ranked last. The Discover, Discovery Sport and Evoque were also among the ten biggest buyers’ regrets in 2025, as measured by the percentage of people selling their cars after owning them for a year or less.

People used to expect this kind of picky behavior from luxury brands. But automakers like BMW and Porsche have sold their share of expensive, high-performance vehicles, finishing second and third, respectively, on CR’s list of brands that make the year’s best cars. Every BMW and Porsche fully tested this year was recommended by CR, including fourteen models of the former and four of the latter.

If there’s one brand that can rival Land Rover in rugged off-road credibility, it’s Jeep – which is also the only brand to trail Land Rover on the Consumer Reports list. The 2026 Wrangler had the worst overall score of any current SUV tested by Consumer Reports. Naturally, this went without a recommendation from CR, as did all other Jeep vehicles undergoing full testing at the time.

Other lowlights from Jeep included last-place rankings for the Gladiator and Grand Cherokee 4xe in their segment, as well as penultimate showings for the Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L. As for the Jeep Compass, despite a 2026 redesign that now lets you choose a hybrid or EV with up to 375 horsepower, it was ranked 26th out of 29 compact SUVs. Regardless of what the new Compass has to offer, Consumer Reports said it “still lags behind the competition in virtually every respect.”

A somewhat bright spot was the Jeep Wagoneer, which made the podium in the large SUV category with a third-place finish overall – even with one of the worst scores in the segment for predicted reliability. The Grand Wagoneer lagged slightly behind its shorter variant in terms of overall score, but shared the same score for predicted reliability. Additionally, CR was testing the redesigned 2026 Cherokee when this article was published, and that SUV tends to be the most reliable model among recent Jeeps.