Consumer Reports routinely ranks the new cars available to American buyers on a number of criteria. Some of them are technical, such as emergency braking performance, acceleration, fuel economy, frequency of repair, and reliability. Others are more subjective, such as comfort, how easy the controls are to operate, and handling characteristics.
“Choosing the perfect car can involve significant research, as you look at pricing, features, and safety. A savvy shopper will also factor in a model’s reliability and even its owner satisfaction, that survey-based measure of how happy car buyers are with the car they own. Being armed with this broad collection of data, backed up with a personal test drive, should help shoppers identify the model that meets all their needs and will make them happy,” Consumer Reports says in its preamble to the latest report.
Its latest survey includes input from more than half a million readers. It asked them to rate their cars on driving experience, comfort, value, styling, audio, and climate systems. Then it asked them this question: If they had it to do all over again, would they definitely buy or lease the same model?
92% of Tesla Model 3 owners answered “Yes” to that question, more than the owners or any other car, including the Porsche 911, Hyundai Genesis G90, and Chevrolet Corvette. The Tesla Model S took the 5th spot in the top 10 list.
Consumer Reports had this to say about the Model 3: “Our testers found the Model 3 to be fun to drive, thanks to the superb handling and immediate thrust from the electric motor.” But, overall, it ranked the car behind the Audi A4 because of the Model 3’s “distracting controls [and] overly stiff ride.” You can’t please all the people all the time.
During the most recent Tesla earnings call, Elon Musk said, “The customer happiness level with the [Model 3] is incredible and, I think, probably the highest of any car in the world right now.” That was no exaggeration, as the Consumer Reports survey proves.