The results of the 2020 Consumer Reports Reliability survey show that Buick is the most improved brand of the 26 studied, jumping to a position which would have seemed improbable as recently as last year.
Buick jumped 14 places to fourth and scoring 70 points out of a possible 100 in CR’s 2020 study. Last year’s top-scoring brand, Lexus, is just one point ahead with 71, while Toyota is not out of reach with a score of 74. The best performer of all, for the first time in any Consumer Reports Reliability survey, is Mazda, with 83 points.
The Tri Shield brand’s Consumer Reports Reliability history has been checkered in the recent past. Although it has been the highest-placed GM brand for the last four years, it crashed from eighth place in 2017 to just 19th a year later, recovering by only one spot to 18th in 2019, making this year’s improvement that much more dramatic.
Buick’s position as GM’s leading Consumer Reports Reliability points scorer remains assured, but the General’s other brands are improving too. GMC, Chevrolet and Cadillac placed 16th, 17th and 21st on the 2020 list, improving by six, eight and nine positions, respectively.
Consumer Reports is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1936, and now has over six million members. For its auto reliability survey, it uses data collected from members based on their combined experience of more than 300,000 vehicles. Reports included complaints about everything from transmissions needing replacement after only 5,000 miles to human hair embedded in paintwork.
“A car might be great to drive and have all the features you want, but all that won’t matter to you much if you have to keep going back to the dealer for repairs,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “We use extensive feedback from owners to help you avoid hassles by choosing a reliable car.”
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Comments
It’s still Consumer Reports, so……..
Even though, this is good for GM and Buick. Especially when you combine this with the more reliable JD Power reports. But just to show how little respect I have for CR, look at which brand they have showing at the top: Mazda. Really? I’m in them every day but Sunday’s. I drive them all over Southern California doing deliveries for our brokers (I work in the fleet department for a Volvo and Mazda store). I often bring back 2-4 year old Mazda’s with issues galore. Just the other day I brought back a 2016.5 CX5 GT that only had 17K and the thing was clean, but it drove terrible, was noisy as heck, and the info controller on the console was broken and falling into the console (not the first I’ve seen this either). Usually it’s the trim around the dash coming out and the driver’s center armrest that is broken. That’s just the late model used ones. Then look at the massive amount of recalls we have and issues with the new Mazda 3/CX30 and there’s no way.
But here’s the line in this article that hit me the most: “A car might be great to drive and have all the features you want, but all that won’t matter to you much if you have to keep going back to the dealer for repairs,” Hmm, sounds like Volvo to me. Maybe why Volvo is so low with CR as well as JD Power. I’ll stick to my GM cars, thank you.
volvo is one spot below chevrolet. ford motor company is in the toilet. they both fall in the less reliable category with lincoln dead last and ford 22 of 26.
Lol…I agree with Dan and the others so far regarding the integrity of CR. My father in-law was a CR guy and purchased a year’s subscription and I ended up buying a CR #1 electronic device and within 6 months it had issues. I was told the amount to repair I should just a new one and buy a different brand. Gave the tech my CR story and laughed. Ever since then I scrapped CR. Items they rated mediocre have sustained 10 yrs of reliable service.
No more CR for me.
steve: I can’t speak with any real knowledge on the Ford products as of late, but with my 2020 Chevrolet Spark I can tell you that it’s been 100% perfect thus far. Before this one, I had a 2018 Encore that was perfect for 2 1/2 years. Several other GM products before those and zero issues including a 2014 Malibu that I liked a lot other than the stupid engine start/stop as well as a 2014 Cruze diesel that I used solely for driving Uber and put a ton of miles on it fast. I can honestly say that all my GM’s have been super and even my old 2006 Buick Lucerne v8 with 163K runs like a champ. But boy could I tell story after story of the Volvo issues I encounter daily. It’s gotten worse since taken over from Ford by Geely (sp?). And what I’m seeing with Mazda most certainly won’t fair well for them in a couple years unless those customers are just turning their heads to the issues we are having.
Well, we have a 2014 Mazda cx 5 with more that 240,000 km and my nephew has a 2015 with 270,000 km without issues. Also, co-workers has Mazda 3 with over 200000 km,
gm got screwed. they took the number one slot by a landslide!!!
consumer reports ….. sounds fishy. time to hire giuliani to see how the votes were tabulated.
he only charges $20K/day and some cheap hair dye.
Have a nice nice nice Thanksgiving Steve!! Hillary Clinton Crime Family, argueably the most corrupt woman Pol on the planet will make a FINE Secretary of Defense AND I’m the edge of my seat in anticipatlion of the economy killing Regulations “Climate” Czar John Kerry will churn out of the DC Swamp back in control. Get that mask back on & obey the Deep State edicts Steve, I saw you cheating.
thank you. i’ll save the pope’s nose for you. i have no doubt that is your favorite part of the bird.
Mike Moss @Deep State
2 steps ahead of you on this one. We have randomly placed Crazy Cat ladies across the country to keep an eye on low level public servants. They meet once a year at the Paducah KY quilting convention.
Does anyone really place significant value in the data published by Consumer Reports? CR reviews and information collection seems to be about as accurate and well-researched as most political polling.
They must have FINALLY read my extensive comments & positive feed back on my TWO 2011 Buick Regal CXL Turbo Russelsheim. A fine asz Buick Sport SEDAN SEDAN SEDAN!!! Did I say SEDAN, Queen MaryB?!!!?
Not going to argue with CR on this one. Parents both have an Encore and Enclave and each vehicle has been perfect……….so far.
Hey Cadillac Matt: Even a broken clock is right twice per day! So I agree with you on CR this time. Even CR will get something right now and then. lol
Fair enough Dan.
GM has greatly improved. CR is independent plus does surveys of subscribers. I have a 2016 Buick Enclave that I purchased at the end of the model cycle liking the earlier years but not their reliability until the issues were addressed as reported by CR. It is a great vehicle. I note CR’s assessment of the Enclave in the 2018 revised model was not great but the necessary revisions were addressed much sooner. This is my first GM product in over 20 years and I prefer to support North American manufactured whether Canada or USA. Competition with Japan and Korea created improvement.
How is this possible? They trash Yukon, Tahoe and Suburban while praise Buick which shares the same platform with former ones and 80+ percent of components?
Notwithstanding the well-known anti-GM bias at CR, customers continue to vote with their feet and buy large GM SUV’s which dominate market shares in that segment. Tough to reconcile CR’s reviews with the realities of the marketplace. CR is a marginal publication with marginal value for this consumer, and most consumers.
Despite the “woke” elitist indoctrinated “I’m smarter than you because I was raised with a device attached to my hand” generation that predominates the staff at CR, I’ve submitted several glowing reviews to their annual auto survey for my now second 2011 Buick Regal CXL Russellsheim. One of the best Buick models ever. Of course they didn’t leave well enough alone, as per GM Corporate policy, and screwed up subsequent Regal models with too many variants. Apparently, from info on here, they’ve corrected most of the damage just in time for MaryB to kill the famous Buick sedans, the life blood of the Brand. Typical nonsense coming from the Ivory Towers in Detroit.