Subaru is having quite a year. The small Japanese automaker managed to dethrone Lexus and Toyota and win the number one spot on Consumer Reports predicted reliability rankings. Couple that with its great road tests and epic consumer satisfaction scores, and it’s unsurprising that Subaru also just won Consumer Reports’ number one spot for overall automaker rankings. For this award, it dethroned BMW.

Year in and year out, Toyota and its Lexus luxury division have dominated everyone’s predicted reliability scores. But then in 2025, that all changed. CR surveyed drivers of vehicles built between 2000 and 2024 to find out if they’d experienced any of the 20 most common car complaints. It found that Subarus, whether old or new, were giving owners less grief than comparable Lexus or Toyota cars. Or any other brand out there.

Subaru won the hearts of many when it introduced its affordable AWD wagons and efficient boxer-style engines. The signature powertrain has had its fair share of problems over the years. AWD has more moving parts than FWD, and multiple early Subaru engines struggled with head gasket leaks. To make matters worse, Subaru is smaller than competitors with a smaller budget for redesigns. It took longer to iron out the issues. But Subaru had a laser-focused mission across vehicle generations so it was able to double down on the engineering that worked.

Steven Elek, data analyst at CR explained the key to Subaru reliability. “Subaru’s cars share many reliable components…This commonality means that when Subaru redesigns a vehicle, it can make fewer incremental changes by carrying over dependable systems. This reduces the risk of new problems.”

BMW is no slouch

Like Subaru, BMW staked a claim on a signature powertrain decades ago. Its formula was light RWD sports cars with torquey I6 engines and available stick shift transmissions. Like Subaru, it kept the engineering that worked and redesigned what didn’t.

The result is that overall road-test score came in at an industry-leading 89, and its CR predicted reliability rank of #8 among automakers is nothing to scoff at. BMW’s strong lineup of enthusiast-oriented “M” cars helped it trounce the owner satisfaction rating. As a result, it earned the number one spot on Consumer Reports’ overall brand ranking in 2024. But it couldn’t hold onto its spot for 2025.

While Subaru and BMW have their differences, Subaru has many similar elements. It has enthusiast-oriented vehicles. This includes the Outback’s off-road-ready “Wilderness” trim and the WRX and BRZ sports cars. These bolster its overall owner satisfaction ratings. In addition, its reliability has improved to beyond Toyota levels. So it’s not especially surprising that it just took the number one ranking in CR’s overall “Who makes the best cars?” report card.

While BMW squeaked out a road test win (89 to Subaru’s respectable 84), its predicted reliability stayed the same year-over-year. Its owner satisfaction is up a bit year-over-year. But that wasn’t enough to save it from Subaru’s big predicted reliability jump. BMW got an overall score of 78/100 while Subaru got a 79/100. Here are the top 10 brands.