Our experts reveal CR’s 2025 Top Picks, featuring the best vehicles that stand out in our rigorous tests. Find out which cars, trucks, and SUVs made the list and why some fan favorites didn't. Plus, we answer audience questions about CR member surveys, hybrid brake tests, and SUV cargo measurement tests.
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See our Top Picks list for free at:
SHOW NOTES:
0:00 – Intro
0:39 – Consumer Reports 2025 Top Picks are free!
1:00 – How CR compiles the Top Picks list
11:56 – 2025 Top Picks, vehicles
28:15 – Audience Question #1: How does CR calibrate member survey responses?
34:07 – Audience Question #2: Does CR test hybrid brakes in, “B” mode?
36:33 – Audience Question #3: Does CR measure the floor-to-ceiling height for vehicle cargo space?
LINKS:
2025 Top Picks:
Consumer Reports Vehicle Ratings:
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No love for the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid!
What about Nissan Murano?
the Maverick has been out for almost 5 years…other manufactures (Toyota) should have had a response
Tesla pick is disappointing. Everything about it and the company is disappointing. Better options out there on so many levels.
You are letting politics get in the way of your judgment
Watch their resale values plummet especially in blue states because of Musk’s antics. Not a fan of the chainsaw video.
@@rmooremarine politics aside they’ve made terrible cars with bad panel gaps and terrible build quality. I’d argue that tesla is not a car company, but a software company. Like the cybertruck should just not exist lol (and is often uninsurable).
What’s wrong with the Nissan Frontier?
I want a Forester because it serves all of my needs and it’s reliable as an anvil. It’s also safe.
It’s so under powered. Only reason I didn’t get it.
I know it is pretty much impossible to convince an 87-year-old why they would need blind spot monitoring or rear cross-traffic alert, but those are two features which older drivers really would benefit from.
BSM is not just useful on highways. I use it in around-town driving.
RCTA is useful when backing up. I once rode with an older guy in Florida who could not even turn his head. This was before rear cameras in cars. He just backed up until someone honked at him.
If it were me, I would try to sneak BSM and RCTA into a car an older person was buying without them knowing about it until after the purchase. RCTA is especially helpful because whenever it beeps, you should stop. Not much technical knowledge needed to do that.
Those are extras that cost. You can’t just sneak them in on people
Love these guys and what they do. However, let’s not forget they are car enthusiasts. It must make a little part of their souls die to tell the world that 7 out of the 10 best vehicles out there are SUVs…
What a surprise for Sentra
Wait…I feel like I missed the big reveal? Seems like a better format would be to go through the Top Picks one by one and talk about what was especially good about each model. Rather than talk about the process of selecting top picks and then mentioning some of the vehicles as a side note to bolster their general statements about their editorial philosophy/approach.
Here’s the reveal, should help put the episode in much better context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnsuod5zQ-U
Ford Maverick will be a piece of crap in a few years. They are throw away vehicles all built on the same platform: Ford Escape, Bronco Sport and Ford Maverick.
Car Seat Measurements…..
Get the full test results on all our Top Picks here: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT
This would have been a good podcast but very hard to get through as a video.
We’ve got the show available in an audio-only format as well, on the podcast app of your choice: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/cars-driving/talking-cars-podcast-archive-a1439738009/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT
I don’t think that the reason that the Honda Element was discontinued was due to low sales. I think that it was because the French doors on the passenger side that made it practical and convenient to load things into didn’t meet the next year’s side impact safety standards after the year that it was discontinued. It was a wonderful vehicle and so useful for so many applications. I wish that someone inside of Honda would reimagine it because it would be a great car for the way that I live.
Re “bikeability.” I’ve been a bicycle racer for 30+ years and have only been a car owner for the last 6 or so. Which means, I’ve RENTED a lot of vehicles to get me, my bikes and my family to bike race events all over the country. And my biggest pet peeve in car reviews is the blanket assumption that “hatchbacks” are better for transporting things. The fact of the matter is that I quickly discovered that it was way easier, for example to fit a bike in the trunk of Mazda3 sedan (with both wheels off), whereas it was impossible to fit in the back of the Mazda3 hatchback without folding seats down. My slightly enormous 2020 Outback has plenty of passenger room, but in terms of pure cargo capacity, the longer load floor of my svelte 2005 Outback was easier for loading in bikes with the seats up (also more fun to drive, with better interior ergonomics, but that’s a little off topic). Similarly the 2005-ish RAV4 had removable rear seats, and so when I was child and dog-less, that meant rolling in two adult bikes into an enormous cavern of a cargo hold was easy. The hardest part of that was figuring out a way to secure the bikes once in there because there was so much extra room. Finally, as I recall, the Honda Element never got great reviews in terms of driving dynamics, reliability or gas mileage. It was, at the time, kind of an outlier in Honda world where we had come to expect the basics of automobile ownership and operation to be totally dialed. For some reason, they just never got it right enough with the Element. I’m sure they figured, why spend the money trying to fix the Element, when we can just focus on big money makers like the Pilot and CR-V.
I’m glad that ford made the Maverick but it seems like a no brainer to make an AWD PHEV Maverick. They already have a PHEV escape which unfortunately only comes in FWD but they also have a Lincoln Corsair that comes in AWD and PHEV. Or just an EV Maverick for people who want a truck and don’t need to tow long distances.
Really disappointed in the direction Consumer Reports has gone. They used to be the one reliable place we car buyers could turn for honesty in regards to different vehicle brands reliability ratings.
We’ve still got that info: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/?EXTKEY=YSOCIAL_YT
Another reason to report measurement data for cargo areas is camping. Can we sleep in the car? Can we sit up in the cargo area? Is the cago floor flat when the seats are folded? To us, these are the first questions we ask when shopping for a new car.