1960 Alfa Romeo Spider Giulietta on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Mazda leads Consumer Reports' latest Brand Report Card Rankings

The latest automaker brand report cards from Consumer Reports are in, and there are quite a few changes for 2021. At the very top of the charts sits Mazda, up three spots over last year, followed by BMW and Subaru to round out the top three. It's interesting to note that mainstream brands (non-luxury in CR-speak) don't seem to be at a disadvantage in CR's rankings, with five of the top 10 spots. In addition to Mazda in first and Subaru in third, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler, and Buick were the other high-ranking non-luxury marques. The ratings are derived from "a combination of predicted reliability, and owner satisfaction based on member surveys, and CR’s hands-on analysis" and also includes safety features and crash test scores.  At the very bottom of the list sit Mitsubishi, Land Rover and Alfa Romeo. "Our brand rankings don't just look at how models perform on our test track, but the broad picture of vehicle quality," said Jake Fisher, Senior Director of Automotive Testing at Consumer Reports. "Fortunately, consumers will find they have many options that are safe, enjoyable, and reasonably priced." The biggest jumps in the brand report card rankings come from Chrysler, Buick and Honda, which each moved up five spots compared to last year's rankings. The news wasn't nearly as good for Lincoln, which fell an alarming 15 spots this year, Genesis, which fell 13 spots, or Kia, which fell 10 spots. Related Video:

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio is new SUV king of the 'Ring

It's been a couple years since the last Nurburgring SUV lap record was set by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, a quick time of 7 minutes and 59 seconds making it the first SUV to pull off a sub-8 minute time. The Cayenne's glory days are over, though, as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio just obliterated that time. Alfa's wild SUV with its Ferrari-based 510-horsepower twin-turbo V6 managed to whip around the north loop of the 'Ring in just 7 minutes and 51 seconds. Not only does that make it 8 seconds quicker than the Cayenne, it's an insane 23 seconds faster than the Land Rover Range Rover SVR, the record holder before Porsche. The Stelvio also was working with a notable power disadvantage compared with the Cayenne and the Range Rover. The Porsche packed 565 horsepower, and the Land Rover had 542 horsepower. View 9 Photos Alfa Romeo also got the whole lap on film, which you can view up above. The video also shows that the Stelvio had an aftermarket roll cage fitted for an extra layer of safety. Alfa didn't say anything about how that might affect performance or what may have been done to offset it. But as we always point out with these records, they shouldn't be taken too seriously, especially for the SUV segment, in which we can virtually guarantee no one will be attempting to replicate this lap time with their personal Stelvios. Related Video:

Italian team hitting the track in an electric Alfa Romeo Giulia touring car

Alfa Romeo isn't scheduled to introduce its first electric model until the early 2020s, but the Giulia is giving up gasoline a little bit sooner to participate in the burgeoning ETCR racing series. Italian tuner and race car builder Romeo Ferraris — which isn't officially associated with Alfa Romeo or Ferrari — published renderings of the track-only sedan it plans to start racing in the coming months. Low, wide and winged, the Giulia ETCR looks ready to line up on the starting grid. And, as is often the case with racing cars, it shares little more than a silhouette with the street-legal sports sedan it's based on. The lights on both ends look nearly stock, but almost everything was developed from scratch by Romeo Ferraris and partner Hexathron Racing System. The 54-year old company pointed out the Giulia is its first electric car, and it stressed it developed the model without Alfa Romeo's support. Its 350-horsepower Giulietta TCR was an in-house project as well. While Romeo Ferraris hasn't published technical specifications, the ETCR regulations give us a good idea of what's under the body. Every car will be powered by the same motors, single-speed gearbox, inverter, and 65-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Series overseer WSC will provide the battery, while the other components will come from Williams Advanced Engineering. The powertrain makes 400 horsepower continuously, and it delivers a maximum output of 670 horsepower. The ETCR series will launch in 2020, though the calendar surprisingly hasn't been published yet. The battery-powered Giulia will need to fend off competition from a similarly modified Hyundai Veloster, and the e-Racer developed by Cupra, which was recently spun off from Volkswagen-owned SEAT. We expect other automakers will toss their hat in the ring in the coming months.