Photo: Subaru
Subaru is widely known as an automaker with loyal, happy customers, and the 2019 auto issue of Consumer Reports has the numbers to back up the perception. Subaru was rated the best brand overall, and the new Subaru Ascent was ranked number one on Consumer Report’s top 10 list, with an overall score of 96.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1936 with the singular goal of providing non-biased product testing, journalistic reporting and studies, customer-focused research, and giving consumers a voice. Since its inception, the group has evaluated the safety, value, and performance of everything from air fryers to investment companies, and even played a role in the creation of seat belt laws.
For its 2019 automotive evaluation, Consumer Reports calculated the overall scores based on an internal road test, satisfaction and reliability rating from CR’s survey, the quality of each brand’s tested vehicles’ safety features, and crash test ratings. Subaru outpaced all 32 other brands included in the study and improved both its reliability and owner satisfaction scores over last year.
On a more granular level, Consumer Reports releases a yearly list of their top ten recommended models based on the 470,000 vehicles covered in their survey and the features that CR members consider to be most important. In the report, Consumer Reports writer Jeff Barlett stated that the staff felt so strongly that automatic emergency braking (AEB) was vital to driver and passenger safety that their top picks would only include vehicles on which AEB came standard.
Based on these criteria, the Subaru Ascent took the number one spot, eclipsing the competition by nearly ten points and earning top marks in both reliability and owner satisfaction. The Ascent, which was introduced as the brand’s first three-row SUV in the 2019 model year, has been an enormous success during its short time on the road, driving Subaru to several record-setting months and leading consumer demand.
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