2008 Honda Civic Lx Coupe 2-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

Honda, Acura EVs will adopt Tesla's NACS charging port

CARMEL, Calif. — As more and more automakers pledge to install TeslaÂ’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports on their electric vehicles, Honda says that it, too, will hop on the bandwagon. Future EVs from Honda – as well as its luxury division, Acura – will have NACS charging setups, giving these cars access to TeslaÂ’s huge network of Supercharger stations. "It is quite important," American Honda Motor Co. President and CEO Noriya Kaihara said in an interview Friday. "We also have to push NACS, as well. It is clear." As for when this will happen, Honda is currently at the mercy of General Motors. The Japanese automakerÂ’s next two EVs – the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX – use shared architecture with GM, leveraging The GeneralÂ’s excellent Ultium battery technology. The ZDX will launch first, and have the traditional CCS port that isnÂ’t compatible with TeslaÂ’s chargers, but it will switch to the NACS design in 2025 or 2026. "We clearly depend on GM," Shinji Aoyama, Executive Vice President of Honda Motor Co., said during Friday's interview. "Once they [switch to NACS], this will follow for ZDX, as well." Looking to the future, Honda is part of a joint venture with seven other global automakers that will see the installation of more than 30,000 EV fast-charging stations across the United States and Canada. The chargers are still in development, but Honda says the companies are all aligned on the core values that are needed to make this charging network successful.  "The software needs to be really reliable and really open infrastructure so it communicates with every OEM's software," Jay Joseph, American Honda's Vice President of Sustainability and Business Development, said in Friday's interview. "The hardware needs to be capable of the highest levels of charging. It needs to be secure, it needs to be reliable, it needs to be accessible." Joseph said the current public charging companies know and understand the shortcomings with their systems, and that TeslaÂ’s Superchargers set an example of how to do chargers right. "If you look at what's so great about the Tesla Supercharger network, it's the maintenance," Joseph said. "They stay on top of it, they've got someone onsite monitoring the equipment, they're monitoring it electronically and remotely, and they fix it – fast. That's probably the most important thing." All the more reason for Honda – and other automakers – to switch to the NACS charging setup as quickly as possible.

Autoblog's Editors' Picks: Our complete list of the best new vehicles

It's not easy to earn an “EditorsÂ’ Picks” at Autoblog as part of the rating and review process that every new vehicle goes through. Our editors have been at it a long time, which means weÂ’ve driven and reviewed virtually every new car you can go buy on the dealer lot. There are disagreements, of course, and all vehicles have their strengths and weaknesses, but this list features what we think are the best new vehicles chosen by Autoblog editors. We started this formal review process back in 2018, so there's quite of few of them now. So what does it mean to be an EditorsÂ’ Pick? In short, it means itÂ’s a car that we can highly recommend purchasing. There may be one, multiple, or even zero vehicles in any given segment that we give the green light to. What really matters is that itÂ’s a vehicle that weÂ’d tell a friend or family member to go buy if theyÂ’re considering it, because itÂ’s a very good car. The best way to use this list is is with the navigation links below. Click on a segment, and you'll quickly arrive at the top rated pickup truck or SUV, for example. Use the back button to return to these links and search in another segment, like sedans. If youÂ’ve been keeping up with our monthly series of the latest vehicles to earn EditorsÂ’ Pick status, youÂ’re likely going to be familiar with this list already. If not, welcome to the complete list that weÂ’ll be keeping updated as vehicles enter (and others perhaps exit) the good graces of our editorial team. We rate a new car — giving it a numerical score out of 10 — every time thereÂ’s a significant refresh or if it happens to be an all-new model. Any given vehicle may be impressive on a first drive, but we wait until itÂ’s in the hands of our editors to put it through the same type of testing as every other vehicle that rolls through our test fleet before giving it the EditorsÂ’ Pick badge. This ensures consistency and allows more voices to be heard on each individual model. And just so you donÂ’t think weÂ’ve skipped trims or variants of a model, we hand out the EditorsÂ’ Pick based on the overarching model to keep things consistent. So, when you read that the 3 Series is an EditorsÂ’ Pick, yes, that includes the 330i to the M3 and all the variants in between. If thereÂ’s a particular version of that car we vehemently disagree with, we make sure to call that out.