According to Consumer Reports' latest round of automaker rankings, Mazda (TYO: 7261) is the car brand to beat. In contrast, stock market darling and current EV frontrunner Tesla fell several spots; the third time in recent memory, the EV maker received low rankings.
Mazda's rise to the top saw the company dethrone the previous #1 Porsche, with BMW (OTC: BMWYY) leaping ahead several spots to secure second place and Subaru (OTC: FUJHY) maintaining its third-place spot. Mazda's considerable jump higher on Consumer Reports' is mainly due to a massive spike in predicted reliability, a metric based on "the problems reported by members in 17 trouble areas in CR's auto surveys".
In contrast, Tesla fell several spots on Consumer Reports' list due to a decrease in predicted quality. Tesla's fall to the middle of the pack at 16th place isn't entirely surprising, as this isn't the first time that the quality of the company's lineup has been called into question. Tesla ranked second to last in Consumer Reports' 2019 Reliability Survey, and had previously been ranked as the worst in initial quality by J.D. Power (unofficially, due to Tesla not sharing data with J.D. Power in states where participation of the company itself is required by law).
Tesla's vehicles have reportedly been shipped with a myriad of problems, from poorly fitted body panels to touchscreen controls failing early in the car's life. Only the Model 3 carried Consumer Reports' recommendation, with all other models being below average quality. On the inverse, Mazda was reported to have improved considerably in terms of vehicle reliability since last year's survey.
For comparison against Consumer Reports' results, Tesla fared much worse on J.D. Power's 2021 dependability study, coming fourth from last place between Chrysler (NYSE: FCAU) and Jaguar. Mazda, meanwhile, was just at the industry average for 121 problems per 100.