A few days ago, the authoritative American magazine "Consumer Report" announced last year's "most popular consumers" and "most unloved by consumers" car brand rankings, of which Tesla once again topped the list, and Infiniti ranked at the bottom.
After conducting a satisfaction survey of the owners of about 300,000 cars, Consumer Reports found that although some automakers have one or two of the most satisfactory models, their other models are not satisfactory in the minds of their owners, and there are a few automakers whose models are consistently satisfied with all or most of their models.
Last year, Tesla again topped Consumer Reports' brand owner satisfaction list, Porsche ranked second, and Genissy retraced to third after not having enough models to meet the target in the previous year. Because it is a survey of consumers in the US auto market, many American car companies are at the top of the list, such as Chrysler and Dodge, which rank fourth and fifth.
However, there are also several American brands that have underperformed, such as Lincoln, who previously ranked second, fell to the midstream level last year, the third-ranked brand Ram has dropped to sixth place, and Buick, Cadillac and other American brands continue to rank at the bottom.
As a magazine that has an impact on consumer culture, Consumer Reports has been trusted by consumers since its inception because it has never published corporate advertisements and does not look at the face of any enterprises, so its consumer goods evaluation reports also have a certain credibility.
Every year, Consumer Reports asks owners if they would be willing to buy the same model they currently have if they were given another chance. Consumer Reports then categorizes these feedbacks from car brands to car owners and presents them in the form of brand average scores to show which brands of cars are the most satisfactory or unsatisfactory from the owner's point of view.
For all brands, most owners say they will buy their cars again, but owner satisfaction is only one dimension of the magazine's overall score for each vehicle tested, in addition to safety, reliability and road test scores are important considerations.
Interestingly, while some car brands score higher on owner satisfaction, these brands score very differently on other metrics. For example, Tesla and Genises, which ranked in the top three, although their owner satisfaction scores are close to full marks, these two brands are nearly at the bottom of the reliability rating of Consumer Reports.
Some brands, such as Acura and Buick, are diametrically opposed, whose models are reliable but less satisfied.
In addition, Consumer Reports analyzes the data to determine which automakers perform well on specific factors such as comfort, ease of use of infotainment systems, and perceived value. Consumer Reports also does this to help consumers better understand the consumer mentality of current car owners – because some consumers will be willing to ignore some other shortcomings because some car brands are extremely prominent in the areas they care about.
Tesla, for example, presents a huge contrast in terms of technological sense and reliability, and for buyers who highly value driving comfort, Mercedes-Benz ranks third in this criterion for all car brands, but its overall ranking is relatively low.
According to Consumer Reports, the most unsatisfactory models or car brands aren't necessarily the worst on the market, it's just that they don't live up to customer expectations.