The German Luxury Brand That Crushed Lexus In An Annual Dependability Survey

The Consumer Reports has released its annual Auto Brand Report Card and BMW has been picked as the best brand in its Overall Scores category. Consumer Report initially gives all the cars they test a road-test score based on 50 scientific tests evaluating performance, braking, fuel economy, and comfort.

The Overall Score is then calculated based on the road test score, owner reviews, safety features, and reliability. Last year’s titleholder, Subaru retains the second spot with reliable and capable cars like the Crosstrek and the Forester helping the brand score higher, with Mini claiming the third spot, coming up five spots from 2022. The Top 10 cars following the top 3 include – Lexus, Honda, Toyota, Genesis, Mazda, Audi, and Kia.

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The New Benchmark

The highest-ranked domestic brand was Buick at 12th place, with Dodge and Lincoln ranking in 15th and 16th place respectively. Toyota’s cars have bagged the most number of CR Green Choice designees, with 9. This means that their cars have been recognized for being low-emission, clean vehicles due to their highly efficient hybrid line-up. On the other side of the 32 brands which were evaluated, some of the lower-ranking brands were Jaguar, which was placed at 30, Jeep at 31, and Land Rover at the very bottom, with models like the Range Rover Evoque scoring low on customer satisfaction and reliability.

Other brands which are also at the bottom with low ranks are Mercedes-Benz, the number one competitor of BMW at 26, GMC at 27, Mitsubishi at 28, and Alfa Romeo at 29. There are obviously several brands not represented on the report card, this is due to the fact that in order to be featured in the Consumer Report, the organization has to test at least two models of the brand, which is why prominent brands like Rivian were not featured.

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How BMW Scored High On Customer Satisfaction And Reliability

For BMW, the writing has been on the wall, with the brand making significant improvements over the last decade to grab over 2.4 percent market share. Comparatively, other luxury brands like Lexus and Audi have only 1.29 percent and 1.74 percent respectively. The main indicator of how BMW has suddenly become everyone’s favorite luxury carmaker is in with its sales numbers.

Just taking into account the past two years alone, the brand has been consistently selling over 300,000 cars in 2021 and 2022. At the same time, comparing this year’s first quarter to last year, BMW has already seen a growth of 11 percent with 82,466 vehicles sold compared to 73,714 vehicles last year. Clearly, the momentum has been carried over year after year, so they must be doing something right.

The success of BMW mainly lies in its models, like the X5 which is a family-sized luxury SUV that is a lot of fun to drive as well. Another successful model is everyone’s favorite 3-Series, which is one of their highest-selling models and has remained an excellent choice for families looking for a reliable, and tech-rich sedan. Consumer Report has given the current model 330i a predicted reliability of 4/5. BMW walks the line between practicality and performance very well, which makes them the ideal choice for buyers who are looking for a great deal.

Another factor that is working favorably for BMW is their extremely competitive pricing, especially when compared to their number 1 competitor, Mercedes. For example, the top-of-the-line 7-Series 760i xDrive Sedan costs $116,400 when compared to the Mercedes-Benz S 580 4MATIC Sedan which costs 124,000 MSRP.

Their great line-up of cars is obviously working out well for them, along with the fact that most BMW dealerships offer their cars with no or very little markup over sticker price. BMW also has cultivated better relationships with their dealerships by sending more cars to ones that sell more. This incentivizes them to sell more, which in turn means that customers can get better deals and also have to wait for way lesser time after ordering their car. In spite of the internet pretty much hating the new front grille design of the 7 series, it has not seemed to have affected sales in any way.

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Future Plans For Growth And Going Fully Electric

In 2023, the main players will be driving the growth of their brands through the sales of fully electric (BEV) vehicles and high-end premium models. BMW is going full steam ahead with plans to release their new battery electric vehicle (BEV) range of models, bolstered by the fact that they doubled their BEV sales in 2022 to 215,000 units. They have set targets for 50% of their models to be BEV by 2030, additionally also planning to completely convert 100% of all Mini Cooper models to BEV versions.

BMW has also remained committed to making significant moves to contribute to climate protection by combining the improved efficiency of its internal combustion engines with investment in EV technologies. In terms of sales growth of fully-electric vehicles (BEVs), BMW claims that customers from other brands are also increasingly choosing BMW EV models due to their excellence and innovation.

New models which we are excited to see are the 2024 i7 M70 xDrive, the new 5 series, the fully electric i5, and the iX2. BMW is riding high on its success and offering genuinely amazing cars, which will be making the future an exciting time to own one.