Tesla dominates owner satisfaction survey, Consumer Reports says

More than nine out of 10 Tesla owners would buy their cars again, leading the industry in Consumer Reports’ Annual Owner Satisfaction Survey.

The survey, released today, found that 91 percent of Tesla owners said they would “definitely” buy their vehicle again if they had a chance to do things over. That’s an industry-best score by a significant margin, beating second-place Porsche by 7 percentage points.

The survey’s top four brands -- Tesla, Porsche, Audi and Subaru -- are unchanged from last year. Brands with notable jumps year-over-year include Lincoln, which moved from 21st to 12th, and Hyundai, which rose to 13th from 24th, according to the magazine.

Consumer Reports determines brand satisfaction among those that have at least two models from the 2014-17 model years to examine. A brand’s final satisfaction rating is simply a “straight average” of satisfaction scores from each of its models, the magazine said.

Low performers

Fiat had the lowest satisfaction rating of the 29 brands surveyed, with just 53 percent of owners saying they would definitely buy their car again. Acura, Infiniti and Nissan, each with ratings of 58 percent, also had scores below 60 percent.

Ram, at 70 percent, fell from No. 5 in the 2015 rankings to 17th this year, while BMW fell from No. 6 to No. 14 and Volkswagen fell from No. 16 to No. 24, the magazine said.

Consumer Reports said the Acura ILX was determined by owners to be the “least-satisfying” vehicle overall, with the magazine calling it “a pricey, dressed-up Honda Civic.”

Four Fiat Chrysler Automobiles vehicles were found to be the least-satisfying models in their segments: The Jeep Compass (small SUV), Dodge Dart (small car), Chrysler 200 (midsized sedan) and the Dodge Grand Caravan (minivan). Meanwhile, two Nissan vehicles -- the Frontier pickup and Pathfinder midsize SUV -- were singled out as the least-satisfying in their respective categories.

The Detroit 3 brands were led by Chrysler, which finished eighth overall with a 73 percent satisfaction rating. Chrysler outpaced each of the other FCA brands that were surveyed, including Ram (70 percent), Dodge (66 percent) and Jeep (60 percent).

Lincoln was ranked No. 12 with a 73 percent rating, while Ford finished 15th with a 72 percent score. General Motors brands were led by No. 9 Chevrolet (73 percent), followed by No. 11 GMC (73 percent), No. 21 Buick (68 percent) and No. 22 Cadillac (68 percent).