How We Rank Cars
Our car rankings are based on a consensus of America's top automotive experts. The rankings do not rely on our own tests or U.S. News editors' preferences.
We combine two types of information: published reviews from respected automotive critics and ratings data from independent sources.
For each car in the U.S. News rankings, our editors analyze credible third-party reviews about the car to come up with a score representing what professional critics says about it. The reviews are gathered from major newspapers, magazines websites. For each third-party review, we score the car on four different components:
- Performance. The performance score represents the reviewer's written assessment of a car's handling, braking, acceleration, ride quality and other qualitative performance measures.
- Interior. The interior score represents the reviewer's written assessment of the car's interior comfort, features, cargo space, styling and build quality.
- Exterior. The exterior score represents the car's eye-catching appeal and perceived build quality.
- Overall Recommendation. The recommendation score represents the overall tone and recommendation level the reviewer places on a car.
In addition to the analysis of professional reviews, we add information of particular interest to consumers, such as safety and reliability data, that isn't part of the critics' qualitative reviews.
- Safety. The safety score is based on a compilation of scores from leading safety rating sources, including the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
- Reliability. The reliability score contributing to the U.S. News rankings is the Predicted Reliability rating provided by J.D. Power and Associates. This score is based on trending the past three years of historical initial quality and dependability data from J.D. Power's automotive studies, specifically the Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) and the Initial Quality Study (IQS).
- Awards. Cars that win major automotive industry awards, such as the Motor Trend Car of the Year and North American Car of the Year, receive a bump in their Recommendation score to reflect the importance of these awards
We combine those scores in a formula that is based on what consumers say matters to them most in a car (what's important to you, not what's important to us). The result is an overall score for each car, which allows us to make head-to-head comparisons of cars, ranking them against each other.
In some instances, the overall score is higher or lower than the component scores we display. This is because the Overall Recommendation from reviewers contributes to our calculation of the overall score, but is not currently displayed as a component score on the website. Occasionally, a car really is more (or less) than the sum of its parts.
The rankings are continually updated based on the latest information coming in from third-party reviews and other sources. As new cars enter the market, they are also added to the rankings and affect how the cars stack up against one another. Check back periodically to see how the latest U.S. News Car Rankings are shaping up.
