This Is The Most Satisfying Automotive Brand To Drive, According To Consumer Reports’ Rankings

What makes a automobile satisfying to drive? It could seem an advanced, subjective topic, but Consumer Reports boils it right down to essentially only one query: “Based on price, performance, reliability, comfort, enjoyment, etc., if given the prospect to do it again, would you purchase the identical vehicle?” Consumer Reports’ overall satisfaction rating is the share of people that answered “yes” to this query on CR’s member surveys. (The info does provide a more detailed breakdown that we’ll discuss below.)

And it sure looks like Rivian is doing a superb job at creating repeat customers: It is the No. 1 brand in essentially the most recent Consumer Reports ownership satisfaction rankings. It was the third straight yr Rivian has claimed the spot (with BMW because the runner-up all 3 times), despite Rivian’s history of scoring last in reliability. Which it did again this yr. Rounding out the highest 10 in descending order were Subaru, Tesla, Ford, Genesis, Lexus, Toyota, Honda, and Chevrolet, and — interestingly enough — Genesis and Chevrolet also joined Rivian in the underside 10 of the CR 26-brand reliability rankings.

Have in mind, nonetheless, that only brands with at the least two models having a “statistically valid” variety of survey responses were considered, which kept 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 truck fully tested by CR while the smaller R2 SUV has received the quick-take treatment.

CR digs somewhat deeper to offer rankings within the categories of comfort, driving, cabin storage, usability, and ownership costs, and Rivian supported its overall No. 1 position by leading the best way in two of them: comfort and value. The primary refers to a mix of in-cabin creature comforts and the driving experience, with the second covering ease of using the controls.

So it’s no surprise to learn that CR considered the cockpits of the 2026 Rivian R1S and R1T to indicate off “excellent attention to detail” and “a premium, high-tech look.” In truth, once we checked out the uplevel 2026 Rivian R1T and R1S quad-motor models, our Collin Woodard raved in regards to the “ridiculously nice” interior, noting, as an example, “a whole lot of the lower sections that will be bare plastic, even in a whole lot of luxury cars, are as a substitute covered in [vegan] leather.”

The usability results were a little bit of a surprise, since a lot of Rivian’s controls need to be accessed by touchscreens, which, as persons are starting to acknowledge, are the flawed technology for vehicle interfaces. Furthermore, CR’s experts gave the R1S and R1T their lowest rating for usability — the satisfaction scores, remember, are based on driver input.

For what it’s value, Rivian appears to be among the many brands rethinking touchscreens and bringing back buttons. A recent patent filing shows an unnamed Rivian dashboard that lets drivers actually use not only buttons for key functions but dials and a slider, too.

Rivian was in second place within the driving category, which looks at performance and handling, but with one other somewhat odd result. The highest-ranked brand here is one which many house owners appear to dislike operating themselves. Yep, Tesla’s alleged self-driving tech didn’t prevent it from outscoring Rivian. The cabin-storage leader was Ram — Rivian was No. 5 — and Tesla and Rivian were 1-2 for ownership costs, which covers things including fuel and repairs. That ownership rating is an additional surprise while you recall that Rivian was dead last for reliability.

Ultimately, that meant Rivian was the one brand in the highest six of all five individual satisfaction categories. BMW, by comparison, placed that prime only within the driving and luxury segments despite being No. 2 overall. Meanwhile, Tesla appeared in all categories save the one for comfort to complete No. 4 overall.

And that brings us to 1 last data point not mentioned when CR explained its satisfaction rankings — even though it’s one shoppers should definitely learn about. It seems that in the event you investigate the person CR reviews for the Rivian R1S and R1T, the one two vehicles fully tested by Consumer Reports at this stage, you will see their predicted values, based on whether drivers consider they got what they expected for what they paid, were only considered “fair.” And the R1S was ranked sixth overall among the many eight CR-tested three-row EV SUVs, while the R1T was fourth out of 4 all-electric pickups. Very like the range for those vehicles, you mileage will little doubt vary when it comes to real-world satisfaction.