The best car brands of 2023

• Consumer Reports released a list of top car brands Thursday.
• 32 vehicle brands were ranked based on factors like road tests and reliability.

Car buyers don't necessarily have to go expensive if they want a top vehicle.

Consumer Reports released its list of the top car brands for 2023 on Thursday. Taking the top five spots, in order, are BMW, Subaru, Mini, Lexus, and Honda.

Taking the bottom five spots are Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Jeep, and Land Rover, with Land Rover at the very bottom.

Consumer Reports ranked brands first by determining a road-test score using braking, handling, comfort, convenience, and fuel economy evaluations. Each brand was then given an overall score that combined the road test score, assessments from reliability and satisfaction surveys, and safety results.

This is the first time BMW landed the top spot, and that was driven by road test scores and reliability and owner satisfaction survey results, according to Consumer Reports. BMW narrowly beat out Subaru, the winner of the 2022 ranking.

Despite BMW taking the lead, Consumer Reports said the other brands at the top indicate consumers don't have to go luxury to get a high-ranking vehicle.

Of note, brands from domestic automakers Ford, GM, and Stellantis (the merged company of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA Group) do not make the top 10 on the list.

Buick is the top-ranking brand of the domestic brands again, and came in at number 12, while Dodge landed 15th and Lincoln, 16th on the list. The other domestic brands fell in the bottom-third of the rankings. And Chrysler, for example, fell 12 spots due to "well-below-average reliability of the Pacifica Hybrid minivan," per Consumer Reports.

It has been especially interesting to watch the US automakers in recent months as the car-buying market continues to navigate persisting inventory and pricing issues as a result of the pandemic.

GM and Ford have generally started to have more cars on their lots in recent months than brands like Toyota or Lexus, but the domestic companies have also had the largest increase in their average monthly car payments from March 2020 to December 2022, while those like Subaru, Kia, and Genesis had the lowest increases.

Tesla fell in the middle of this year's list at number 17, hopping six spots from 2022's rankings, due to improving reliability scores, according to Consumer Reports.

Meanwhile, Genesis made the biggest leap, up 12 positions to number 7, bolstered by improved reliability.

Here's the full list:

1. BMW

2. Subaru

3. Mini

4. Lexus

5. Honda

6. Toyota

7. Genesis

8. Mazda

9. Audi

10. Kia

11. Acura

12. Buick

13. Hyundai

14. Porsche

15. Dodge

16. Lincoln

17. Tesla

18. Infiniti

19. Volkswagen

20. Volvo

21. Nissan

22. Ford

23. Chevrolet

24. Cadillac

25. Chrysler

26. Mercedes-Benz

27. GMC

28. Mitsubishi

29. Alfa Romeo

30. Jaguar

31. Jeep

32. Land Rover