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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.

Japanese students turning Mazda CX-5 into Dakar Rally-ready off-roader

Students at Japan's Nihon Automobile College (NATS) are transforming a first-generation Mazda CX-5 into a full-blown off-roader that looks ready to compete in the Dakar Rally. Named CX-Runner, the one-of-a-kind model will make its debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon opening its doors in January 2020. The Tokyo Auto Salon is the Japanese equivalent of the annual SEMA show, so anything goes under the bright lights. NATS students began the CX-Runner project with a used 2012 CX-5 and seemingly set out to leave as few original parts as possible. While the project isn't finished yet, a sketch released by the school suggests the crossover will receive wheel arch extensions, an external roll cage, a beefier suspension, and a shorter front bumper that increases the approach angle.  Photos published on the school's official Facebook page show the project is moving along nicely. The body extensions are made with a composite material that looks like Kevlar, and fitting the rear wheel arches required sealing the back doors, which is fine; the CX-Runner will be a two-seater. We don't know if students are planning to make changes to the CX-5's powertrain yet, but a thick skid plate will protect whatever is under the hood from expensive impacts with obstacles encountered off-road. nats-mazda-cx-runner-project-1 View 3 Photos The Tokyo Auto Salon will open its doors on January 10, so the students have time to finish the custom-made body kit, install the suspension, paint the CX-Runner, and fit the roll cage. They're not just doing this for fun, though. NATS began offering a customizing class in 1998, and building a tuner car is one of the requirements aspiring builders need to fulfill in order to graduate. With that in mind, it's no surprise that NATS will again have a big presence during the 2020 edition of the Tokyo Auto Salon. In addition to the CX-5 off-roader, its students are building six custom cars including a Nissan 370Z roadster wearing front and rear fascias sourced from a GT-R, a Toyota 2000GT-inspired convertible based on the Suzuki Cappuccino kei car from the 1990s, and a four-door, five-seater Toyota 86 built on Camry bones but powered by the coupe's flat-four engine. Relate Video:

2020 Mazda CX-5 diesel is still, and perhaps forever, MIA

Halfway through 2020, the most recent Mazda CX-5 diesel you can find anywhere in the U.S. is a 2019 model year — the only one offered so far. With automaker factories beginning their model-year turnovers shortly, CarsDirect did some poking around as to the fate of an oil-burning 2020 CX-5. The outlet couldn't get definitive answers, but a host of secondary evidence suggests the diesel crossover will skip this year, naturally leading to the question of whether the model will skip this market from now on.  Asked in April about the crossover's fate or its arrival, Mazda would only say that "with the current state of the world, many things are tentative." The following month, the automaker's early fleet ordering guide pegged this month as marking the end of CX-5 production, 2021MY crossovers starting down lines in August. Mazda had nothing to say about that information, either. When CarsDirect got in touch again for this latest report, Mazda professed the delay has nothing to do with emissions certification. Then the wall went up again, the only other comment being, "We cannot confirm any details for the CX-5 Diesel at this time."    We're speculating, but at this point, even if Mazda could get 2020MY CX-5 diesels on the lot, why should the automaker bother? The challenges for diesel in general, and this expression of diesel particularly, are clear to everyone; our last post on the CUV, six months ago, was about the five-figure discounts dealers were offering. A quick check on Autotrader at the time of writing shows 45 examples of the 2019 CX-5 diesel available nationwide, plenty of them still priced in the low- to mid-thirties. On Autotrader Canada, which specifies vehicle availability beyond the "1,000+ Results" on the American site, there are 6,135 CX-5s listed nationwide, only 58 of them diesel. Canadian outlet Motor Illustrated wrote, "Mazda recently told us they had a lot of Mercedes-Benz GLE diesel owners and other diesel fans with upscale models trade for a CX-5 diesel." Apparently luxury diesel crossover conquest buyers aren't numerous enough to support a model line. The gasoline versions of the 2020 Mazda CX-5 launched in November last year. It shouldn't take that long for us to find out about the fate of the 2020 CX-5 diesel, or if there will be a 2021 model. Related Video: