General Motors brands once again hovered around the bottom of the pack in Consumer Reports latest brand ranking chart. Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac all finished under the top 10 brands CR tested this time around.
The best place finisher was Buick, which ranked 18th out of 33 spots. It actually gained one place over last year’s ratings, moving from 19th place. The rankings shouldn’t be confused with just reliability ratings, but Buick has experienced somewhat of a fall from grace in the past few years. In 2016, Buick became the first U.S. auto brand to crack the top three rankings in the CR reliability rankings. It trailed only Toyota and Lexus.
Predicted reliability for the Buick brand didn’t change, nor did the owner satisfaction score.
Chevrolet was the second best-placing brand in 24th place on the ranking. Worse news: that’s down one spot compared to last year. Expected reliability is predicted to drop, though owner satisfaction rose for this year’s iteration of the rankings.
Cadillac fell behind Chevrolet in 26th place, down two spots from the year before. Expected reliability is way down and owner satisfaction didn’t move an inch. Harshly, CR doesn’t recommend any Cadillac vehicle it has tested.
Finally, GMC placed right behind Cadillac in 27th place. The brand is actually up one place from last year, though expected reliability was also down. Owner satisfaction, however, increased.
Each of the GM brands placed behind rival Ford in 20th place and behind Chrysler in 22nd place. Though, its worse news for Chrysler as it tumbled 11 places this year. Dodge ranked 25th, up two places, while Jeep placed 29th, up four places.
Foreign makes fared much better. Hyundai, Toyota, and Mazda all placed in the top ten and Subaru moved six places to take the top spot away from Genesis this year. Lincoln also made major moves and climbed nine places to rank eighth place.
Comments
GM better go buy another JD Powah award.
What’s worse is that they don’t back what they sell. I know someone whose Civic had an engine failure at 140K miles; Honda replaced the engine free of charge and sent it to engineering for a tear down. GM’s customers on the other hand are fought tooth and nail over every little repair, whether it’s under warranty or not.
What’s more, FCA fired their quality manager for a similar poor CR ranking a few years back, they have improved since. I doubt GM will do the same. He’ll probably get a raise.
Maybe GM needs to hire more trolls. I hear you go to the highest bidder much like CR!
I find it hard to believe they would comp an ENGINE at 140,000 miles….
Yep this is so old news.
GM has ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT.
The way GM handles the CUSTOMER is the worst thing I have ever experienced in product ownership.
Perception is hard item to overcome. Even Subaru is low in scores for problems per 100 cars. One of the major issues is with connectivity . The more content put into vehicles without explanation leads to a lot of disconnect with newer vehicles. And as for goodwill for certain items all manufacturers have goodwill on a case by case basis. Just because your brother from another mother friend of your 3rd cousin did not get any help does not mean anything,as it is always a case by case basis. And local dealer attitudes also affect goodwill depending on the slant put into the comments.
This is not perception !!
It is reality !!
This is an average product backed by the worst customer support structure I have ever experienced.
Making up excuses for a failure of customer relations is the biggest problem.
Instead of talking to the CUSTOMERS having the troubles GM spends more time trying to convince the CUSTOMER everything is ok.
Meanwhile as a GM owner I have a stack of letters from GM on faulty parts. And now just driving around waiting for them to fail instead of just fixing them.
And not someone I know somewhere on the earth.
ME! It is ME!! My GM vehicles.
Nobody believes you. You troll this website far too hard. It’s sick that somebody spends their entire day on here pretending to be a disgruntled GM fan. Odd how between the wife and I, we’ve owned 4 GM vehicles built in the last 8 years and accumulated hundreds of thousands of miles without any major issues or problems with GM customer service. Even when there was a problem with my truck’s radiator, GM gave me a loaner truck to use while it was replaced without even having to ask for one.
The typical GM troll response.
I have also owned 4 GM vehicles with hundreds of thousands of miles without any major issues or problems with GM customer support.
However not the last three !! The prior three all had well over 140,000 miles each. Never had to comment on those. Never once wrote one thing degrading GM in 38 years of ownership.
Find it, research it, not once.
Not true with the three we own now. And there is ZERO GM customer support.
You should know by now I couldn’t care less whether anyone on this site or any other site believes me or not. Just stating FACT of my personal ownership experience.
And if anyone would just do a little research on there own they would soon find out I am not the only one who has had trouble with the lack of GM customer support.
CR will kill a car because they can’t figure out the infotainment system. Another point to get full android headunits into cars
Or – Just asking – OR
Is it just the poor quality of the infotainment system.
Take a look out there on the Cadillac CUE system. Most customers like the system. This has nothing to do with not being able to figure it out ( ok to be fare maybe a little ) but the CUE screen was JUNK – FAULTY. Non responsive, delamination, glitchy.
Our ATS still goes nuts at times just starts changing the radio station and you can’t stop it until you shut off the car.
Gee I wish I could just learn how to run it. After being a computer programmer for 15 years. Now that’s funny.
CR has complained about FCA’s Uconnect system – considered one of the best infotainment systems in the business – and also, incredibly easy to use. I’m sure they’ve complained about Chevy MyLink – another extremely good system (especially 2.0 and now “Infotainment 3”), too.
CUE wasn’t great, but I’ve used it in my FIL’s ’14 CTS and never once had trouble or difficulty with it. I’ve read they have significantly revamped it and it is far superior to the old system.
Yet they don’t seem to have any issue with Honda or Toyota’s terribly outdated, slow and buggy systems.
I agree the newer CUE systems are faster and better. Even the new 2019 GMC Mylink is faster and better.
But out of the three GM we own now the two Mylinks have no troubles. Sure slow and a little buggy as far as this or that, but the CUE. Delamination, just goes bonkers from time to time, freezes, this one is just total junk.
By the way, I like the CUE system, the look, the feel, the buttons, the operation, it works great.
When it works !!
The Brazilian investment firm cut costs relentlessly but failed to spend on new ideas when consumer tastes changed. This is in reference to the company that brought Burger King and Heinz and is now struggling Financhally.
I know this is totally different from an automobile company but the same scenario seem to be happening at GM. I think it’s time to invest in product before it’s too late. Many of you may say this is just Consumer report who hate GM but let’s face far too many customers feel the same way. When it come to vehicle choice there are too many to for GM not to bring their A game in product design and development. There is an old saying if you snooz you lose. Right now GM seem to be snoozing. Time o wake the sleeping giant.
Customers feel this way? Odd GM seems to be selling plenty of vehicles. Ever bother to look at how CR comes up with these results. It’s a very flawed survey that largely has nothing to do with reliability in the traditional sense. The user not being able to properly use the infortainment is not the same thing as having engine problems. On top of that, they ask the person taking the survey to rate severity of any issues they had with the vehicle. I have no doubt that the few transmissiin complaints they had are due to firm shifts. Of course, mostvpeoplevwould assume that a firm shift means the transmission is about to fail, rating it 1/10 for reliability. But their Toyota was slipping cluches to get that extra soft shift and they would rate it a 10 out of 10. For reliability. CR rolls with it as long as it helps keep subscribers. They surely can’t let word get out that the rate of breakdowns between the best and worst manufacturers is only a fraction of what it was 20 years ago.
The top owner satisfaction awards only went to three brands:
Genesis
Porsche
Tesla
A good Dealership with a trustworthy service department, makes all the difference for customer satisfaction.
Somewhat. A good dealership somewhat makes a difference. The good ones are FEW and FAR between and when push comes to shove the COMPANY needs to set the standard on CUSTOMER RELATIONS.
And GM suuuuuuuucks at CUSTOMER RELATIONS.
Really interesting article…
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/02/23/call-and-response-the-great-model-3-consumer-reports-reliability-kerfluffle/
So many metrics for GM are going in the wrong direction. I really think the company is being poorly led now. I had high hopes for Mary Barra and was initially impressed with how she handled the ignition switch scandal and then relentlessly recalled every GM car for every problem the company had knowledge of but GM appears to be in a state of decline again and I think you have to fault top-level management for that.
Do you think it is just the same thing over again.
Maybe she is just fed s**t.
Like the dealership and lack of GM customer support. If the dealership pushes out the customer that is having troubles. ( witch is happening, I am one of them ) And then reports to GM the customers they have are only 5 star raters. How is GM going to fix something GM thinks is going 5 star.
I can tell you from personal experience GM customer service SUCKS. I have went back and forth on all three of our last GM vehicles and for the first time in 38 years have driven the competition.
GM needs to fix this !!
Again people looking at the wrong “metrics” . The car business in the US is dying . With gas prices low the SUV and truck biz is escalating. Overseas the emerging nations have better car biz or small cuv. With so many car companies working together trying to leverage a changing demographics to buying cars and truck., many of which do not fit the current climate in North America. For example the Prius C driveline is the new Crosstrek Hybrid driveline. It Takes time to develop new product when the target keeps moving.
All the more reason to put forth your best effort to stay ahead of the competition. In my openion GM is not doing that with their main stream products. They seem to be spending a lot of time and money chasing future tech and ignoring the current products. It’s the current product that’s makeing the money that they are spending on future tech. If they continue to ignore them and lose sales and market share there will no money to spend on future products and tech.
There is no option, get reliable and provide good customer care or die on the vine.
What say you GM?
Makes sense; GM spends their money on marketing blitz of a gimmicky tailgate…
who in the actual hell wanted that tailgate??
I like the tailgate.
There are opinions on all design aspects. and they are opinion.
However there is NOT opinion on reliability or CUSTOMER support. You either have it or not. It is not an opinion.
If your vehicle has a faulty part and GM does nothing, its NOT opinion it is FACT.
I might like a headlight and others may not. A tailgate, a color, but LACK of CUSTOMER SUPPORT is NOT an opinion.
I have an open recall on heated seat fires. I’ll get it done as soon as the weather breaks. Dealer is in the snowbelt. I use winters. Service loaners all have the OE RFT.
The deal with the seat heaters on certain ATS and CTS will be *repaired* by reprogramming the BCM to disable the function. My CTS is still in the B2B taillight warranty and they will take away a function I paid for. This is a proper fix for GM.
That’s where I came in.
I always take the CR reports lightly. Too much is left for interpretation by those who respond and those who read CR. However, the real CR lover takes these reports to heart. When I worked at Sears in the yard department, suddenly there was a demand for one walk behind mower model. It came in very high or #1 in a CR report. It was last years model number and about 12 other models were identical in engine, deck type, etc. It just showed the influence this magazine has.
Somebody has to pay for Machete Mary’s asinine visions for the company. Unfortunately it is the customers and employees.
Since 2012 I have owned a Cruze and two Malibu’s. I’ve had very few problems with them and have enjoyed them all. The dealerships I have used have provided excellent service. I’d buy another Malibu in a heartbeat. I checked Out a new Honda Accord but couldn’t get as good a deal. Besides, I just like the size and style of the Malibu LT so much more.
You’re going to have to better than :
” I have owned a Cruze and two Malibu’s. I’ve had very few problems with them ”
Which cars, how many years, how many miles..
And please tell us about the problems..
fan boys typically look at this stuff through rose colored glasses..
Me : 2014 accord EXL. 4.7 years old. 126,000
brakes: 80,000
water pump 105k
starter 120k
I consider this…I would say average, in terms of reliability.
My 2006 grand caravan was way worse than this though.. and while it ran to 180k 0k, it’s over all cheapness was apparent after 3-4 years.
Well, lets see. I had the extended warranty on the Cruze and the only big thing that happened to it was the water pump failed and had to be replaced which cost me nothing. I was lucky enough to have bought the car when Chevy was offering lifetime free oil changes, so I took advantage of that until I traded the car in after having it for 5 years with over 100K miles on it for a 2017 Malibu. I put almost 50K on the Malibu in a little less than two years, during which time I only had the regular maintenance as suggested by Chevy. Unfortunately, we were hit by an 18 wheeler in Pasadena one night and the car was totaled. It literally looked like someone had taken a giant can opener to it and blew in my window, destroyed a rear tire, etc. On the positive side of this, we were protected nicely by the car with only a few bumps and bruises. We replaced that car with a 2018 Malibu LT and have NEVER been treated better by an auto dealership, in this case Paradise Chevrolet in Temecula. I generally HATE buying cars, but this experience was exceptional. Our new Chevy is one of the smoothest rides we’ve ever had. The computer display is bigger and nicer than the 2017 and uses Apple Carplay which I’ve found very useful for a variety of things including WAZE, Spotify, and iHeart Radio. Also, it plays all my purchased iTunes music on USB. We love the back seat which has more space than most of our previous cars. Also has a good size trunk and came with dark tinted windows. The turbo engine provides plenty of power (for us) and the trim lights are a nice touch. We have less than 5K miles on this one and have the extended warranty and gap insurance which we found to be much more reasonably priced that we thought. Oh yes, we also have the lifetime oil changes which will save us a few bucks over the years we have it. And the car looks great. So far, very satisfied.
Yea but my brother has a Cruze and that is not the case with his, so there are a lot of people in the world today.
Like I have said many times, if you are one of the lucky ones, great, good for you.
But if not, GM will do nothing for you. Its up to the dealer.
GM has no customer support.
I never put much stock into Consumer Reports when it comes to automobiles. I have read their magazine for many years and I have found they don’t seem to use the same guy that rates toasters to rate cars. That being said, if you look at all the bad reviews the new GM PICKUP TRUCK is getting these days from most all of the other writers that do know something shows me a change in leadership is needed. The quality of the product for the price is in decline. But the company continues to say ” we are right and you are wrong” and even this website has articles about stock prices rising and that’s great! But GM is putting all it’s money into something that, despite what some would think, is a huge risk. Electrification and autonomy is not being accepted by the general public, not now, not for a long while off! Big oil is being quiet but I am pretty sure they are not going to just quit no matter what the EU or any other government entity says. GM seems to be abandoning conventional cars and trucks for a futuristic gamble but in the same time they are abandoning conventional buyers. And those buyers today are what will fund those dreams of tomorrow. It’s time for new leadership that can balance the need for today AND have a vision for tomorrow, not throw one away for the other.
Consumer Reports is fickle as there’s no reason for why a brand to get good marks one year and bad marks the next especially if the fleet has changed little.
On the other hand they “predict” a new model of a Toyota will have great reliability. The 3rd gen Tacoma comes to mind. Turns out the truck has had horrible reliability since 2016. They rate Hyundai/Kia high yet Hyundai has had several lawsuits for engine failures related to the Theta II, vehicle fires, and transmission issues. CR is all over the map.
Alan’s comment on “Perception” is dead on. CR has only one perception: Japanese cars are great and American cars are crap. Period. Consumers put too much trust in CR when it comes to cars and trucks, and so you see many people with the same perceptions. I dare say that a Ford Focus or Chevy Cruse is easily as good a car as a Toyota Corolla, but the “perception” is that the Toyota is a much better car. That is just bulls**t, and everyone who knows ANYTHING about cars will tell you the same. Unfortunately, Americans that want a U.S. built car are now out of luck. If it’s not an SUV/CUV or a pickup, you’ll have to go elsewhere.
“CR has only one perception: Japanese cars are great and American cars are crap. Period.”
Is this why the top 3 were Japanese, Korean, and German? Lincoln was 8th and Cadillac was 26th. Is that because of Consumer Reports bias towards Japan?
I have a 2016 Buick Regal AWD. Best car I’ve ever owned hands down. Zero issues.
miles driven?
CR buys the first year of a car. If the car improves later, they never see it.
Also import buyers love their imports and rate them higher than american car buyers would
probably rate them. If a Cadillac has problems, American cars are no good, but if an import has
problems, then it must be just that one car.
This is NOT perception !!
Get off your couch and talk to people. When you see someone get into a Toyota or Honda, ask them.
How long have you had this vehicle? How many have you bought? How many miles? How many problems?
You will learn quickly it is NOT perception !!
How long can GM and its supporters keep whistling past the graveyard?
As a consumer, GM isn’t earning my dollars.
I can say that GM dealers in Montana have been good to work with.
I have had good dealer support from my GM dealers in Montana. Just my opinion
GM needs to get “car” people running the show-not token women.
I’m the proud owner of the new Cadillac XT4 since October 2018 and driving it has been an outstanding experience. The XT4 doesn’t know what the service area of the Cadillac dealer looks like. I have always owned GM vehicles and my owner experience has always been outstanding.
I have been a life long GM owner as well. I purchased a Certified PreOwned Escalade luxury. It was nothing but problems from the start. I finally got an attorney, and they bought the vehicle back. I find it ironic, GM paid my attorney, and their attorney, and I wound up losing 14 grand. GM could have bought the car back, and gave me a discount on a new one, but they chose not to.
1973 Chevelle SS (New)
1972 Chevy Nova (Used)
1976 Chevy Monte Carlo (New)
1978 Caprice Classic (New)
1979 Trans Am (New)
1984 Chevy S 10 (New)
1990 Chevy Camaro (New)
1991 Chevy Work Van (New)
1996 Cadillac Eldorado ETC (Used)
2002 Chevy Silverado (New)
2006 Cadillac XLR V (New)
2012 Cadillac CTS V (New)
2014 Cadillac CTS V (New)
2015 Cadillac Escalade Luxury (Used)
2018 Cadillac Escalade Platinum (New)
2019 Cadillac CT6 V (On Order)
Corporate GM has no customer loyalty. I have to give Ron Carter Cadillac 5 stars for being a great dealership. Even though I did not by my lemon from them, they did all they could to keep me as a satisfied Customer, when the GM factory rep offered me 4 grand towards a new vehicle, which was a joke. Both the Service and Sales Departments are above board at this facility.
You will just be called a troll here for stating your facts.
This exact thing is what I’ve been saying for quite some time now.
Just because some have had a great customer experience does not mean the terrible ones don’t exist.
Because they do and often times with the same owner.
Still doesn’t change the FACT that corporate GM has ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Not sure how to change it though. If we continue to purchase GM vehicles nothing will change. And if we quit purchasing GM vehicles they will just go belly up again.
So lose, lose, situation.
If someone feels I am a troll for expressing my disappointment, while still purchasing American Products, then there is nothing I can do about that. I am glad to have a place to share what I went through.
I don’t put much stock in CR rankings. They usually rank low the vehicles that I like the best. Still, it is telling. The last ranking that I looked at ranked the sedans GM is killing higher than the SUVs they are keeping, i.e. Impala. GM clearly does not consider CR ranking in its market research.
We have 3 GM vehicles, all Chevrolet. Everyday I drive my 2018 Equinox back and forth to work, I can’t understand why it is so trashed by Consumer Reports, it’s an awesome car. CR trashed it when it first came out without even test driving it. We’ve had no problems with it, our 2008 Silverado, or out 2015 Traverse. The reason we have 3 Chevys is because we love the dealership. Years a go I got a call from a Toyota chain dealership who gouged us EVERY time we went in for service, saying my Avalon wasn’t worth fixing and they wanted me to come in and talk about buying a new one. I knew they were lying once again, because the car was in mint condition. So I asked the Chevy dealer to put it up on the rack and tell me if the brakes were shot (were replaced 4 months earlier) and had 3 oil leaks. We were poised to buy a new Chevy because I was done with Toyota and the GM dealer knew it. They came back to me and said my Toyota was in excellent condition and I didn’t need a new car. I drove it another 4 years getting service from GM. They could have said, yea, you need a new car but they were honest. I’ve been with them ever since and love my GM cars.
Judd,
We have 9 GM vehicles, 4 are everyday drivers.
As for our experience you could take everything you said and switch the GM and Toyota around.
Only difference is I have always and continue to only drive GM.
Dealer service manager lied straight to my face, was caught in the lie, dealership CFO tried to make it right, and years later the liar is the dealer manager ?
The last 3 GM vehicles have been less than good quality, leaks, rattles, recalls, terrible shifting, extended coverage on faulty parts just waiting to fail, etc.
Just look at the number of class action law suits against GM, FOR PARTS GM KNOWS ARE FAULTY !!
Where is this reaction against Toyota – Honda ?
Sure ALL automotive manufactures have troubles with vehicles or parts from time to time, BUT MOST try to deal with their CUSTOMER.
Especially when the manufacturer knows there at FAULT !!!!
There are many people who have good luck with their GM products. There are many people who DO NOT.
You happen to be one who has had good luck, BUT the overwhelming population of vehicle owners on average have had better reliability and CUSTOMER service from the likes of Toyota and Honda, than GM.
If you just spend 2 months reading on all media you will soon learn that GM as a company has ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT !!!!
Some GM dealers are better than others as for ALL auto manufacturers, BUT where are all the people from the other brands using lemon laws, suing for by backs, class action law suits ?
I am happy for you !!!
You have had good experiences with GM !!!
I too used to only have good experiences with GM!!!
I hope you good experiences continue, because if not, like myself and so ,so, so many others GM WILL NOT BE THERE FOR YOU !!!!!
I recently had my 2015 Escalade bought back by GM. It was not a pleasant experience and no GM is not Customer orientated. The district rep was a real hemmoroidial individual with no customer skills. Gm condones this type behavior. Gm would rather pay your attorney and their attorney than to make things right with the customer. I lost 16 thousand dollars to get rid of the lemon. I purchased my first foreign car in August of last year. First time I have not purchased a gm vehicle in my lifetime.
Best view i have ever seen !