Tesla Motors Among Top 5 Car Brands In Consumer Reports Survey

Tesla Motors ranks in the top five brands in an annual consumer perception survey by Consumer Reports, another accolade from the magazine that rates Tesla’s Model S among the best cars it’s ever tested.

The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey from Dec. 6 to 15, 2013, and collected survey data from 1,578 adults in households that had at least one car.

The survey didn’t simply ask which car brands people liked best. Instead, they were asked to rank seven aspects of a car buying decision: design and style, performance, quality, safety, technology and innovation, value and, finally, fuel economy.

Then they were asked to name which brand was a leader for each of those aspects. The results were then used to calculate the overall favorite brand.

The Toyota brand topped Ford Motor Co.’s nameplate brand by 25 points — five points higher than last year’s ranking — followed by the Honda brand in third place. Then came General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet brand, Tesla, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Cadillac and BMW.

Toyota’s score rose five points from last year while Ford’s rose four. Chevrolet’s score went up 13 points while Honda’s perception score went down 16 points, resulting in those two brands nearly tying each other.

The biggest winner was Tesla, which jumped from 47 points last year to fifth position with 88 points.

Tesla’s Model S has gotten very strong reviews and sales have been above forecasts, but it is also facing an investigation by federal safety officials into battery fires sparked by debris striking the undercarriage.

Falling out of the top 10 were Dodge and Hyundai.