Rivian is the Most Satisfying, Yet Least Reliable Car Brand 🚙

What we’re showing

This graphic visualizes data from Consumer Reports’ 2024 surveys on car brand satisfaction and reliability.

Satisfaction is represented as the % of owners who would buy another car from the same brand, while reliability is based on Consumer Reports’ proprietary data. 

See the Dataset tab for the underlying numbers behind this ranking. Note that several brands were left out due to insufficient data. 

Key takeaway

Owner satisfaction isn’t necessarily tied to reliability. For example, both EV brands in this survey (Tesla and Rivian) score very high in satisfaction, but poorly in reliability. 

At the other end, brands like Acura and Mazda rank highly in reliability, but lower in satisfaction.

Rivian satisfies, Volkswagen disappoints

Consumer Reports also highlights which brands satisfy owners within specific areas. Rivian ranked the highest in terms of comfort, usability, and ownership costs (which are typically lower for EVs). 

Meanwhile, Volkswagen ranked the lowest in terms of driving experience and usability. Audi, another VW group brand, ranked lowest in terms of cabin storage.