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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.

2019 Hyundai Veloster shows off its colorful new face

The next-gen Hyundai Veloster is coming soon. When I was in Korea for the launch of the new Hyundai Kona, all three variants — standard, Turbo and N — were trotting around the automaker's proving grounds, teasing and laughing at us since we weren't allowed to use our cameras. After some sleuthing, we uncovered some new info. Thanks to the automotive media back in Korea, we have what appears to be official images of the new Veloster Turbo done up in some of the best-looking camouflage we've seen in a long while. The car will make its full debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January. It seems the car was shown off to the Korean press at Inje Speedway in Gangwon Province. The car retains the same basic three-door layout of the old model. That means two doors on the passenger side and one for the driver. The shape may be generally the same, but the car looks far cleaner than before. It's as if Hyundai's designers smoothed out all the lines and pulled the bodywork tighter to the frame. Like before, the exhaust appears to exit from the center, though the N model I saw in Korea and in spy photos has a more traditional dual-exit exhaust pipe. Floating red-painted calipers appear to clamp on some pretty large rotors. There appear to be two wheel designs, too. There aren't any photos of the interior, but once again our spy photographers have come through. The press release we found also lists a new heads-up display. Since these photos came from Korea, we contacted representatives at Hyundai here in the U.S. for more info, but weren't given any clear answers. All we were told was that the images came from their counterparts in Korea. Expect the Veloster Turbo to share the 201-horsepower turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four and transmissions from the Elantra GT Sport. Korea apparently gets a 1.4-liter engine, but it's unclear if that's coming here. We hope the hopped-up Veloster N will get the 271-horsepower turbocharged inline-four from the i30 N. Hyundai has been on a killer roll as of late. We can't wait to drive this. Related Video:

Surprise Costs Have A Cost: Why we turned down the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell

They say you can always tell the pioneers. They're the ones with the arrows in their backs. Unfortunately, that was our experience pursuing – and eventually rejecting – the new hydrogen fuel cell-powered Hyundai Tucson. I first heard about Hyundai's new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2013. As a tech buff, the thought of driving a new, clean technology vehicle sounded exciting. Best of all, Hyundai was wrapping the new vehicle in a smart, familiar package, as a loaded current-generation Tucson SUV. The FCV Tucson was billed as $499 a month with $2,999 down, with free fuel and free maintenance. Our family needed a new, small, fuel efficient SUV, so I signed up for information on the upcoming lease program. Someone has to go first. Why not us? In the spring of 2014, I learned more at a Clean Fuel Symposium, held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The panel was packed with experts on alternative fuel vehicles. One spokesperson outlined the chicken or egg problem with alternative fuels like hydrogen: fuels first or vehicles? Another said something that I should have heard more clearly. "If the argument [to move to alternative fuel vehicles] has to start with a change of behavior from consumers, that's a hard row to hoe." I would soon to learn what an FCV would really cost, both in hours and in dollars. Nonetheless, I was ready to try jumping the hurdles and get an alternative fuel car. A low impact on the environment, plus free fuel and a solo car pool lane sticker? What could go wrong? My wife was a much harder nut to crack. My habit of jokingly calling it a "nuclear-powered" car probably didn't help much either. Our conversations went like this: "A what kind of car?" "Hydrogen fuel cell." "What?" "It's essentially an electric car." "Don't those things have a really short range?" "Yes. That's what the hydrogen is for. You fill it with hydrogen to fill the fuel cell, instead of charging it overnight like an electric car." "Where do you get hydrogen?" "Well..." It turned out the nearest hydrogen station was in Burbank, about 13 miles from our house. In LA traffic, that could be more than half an hour's drive each way. Since there's an excellent bakery in Burbank (Porto's), I told my wife I was fine with taking the time each week to fuel up every 200 miles or so.