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BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

Dealership worker takes Kia Soul for 200-mile joyride

Most often, dealership road-test capers in customer cars involve exciting metal - an employee totals a Chevy Camaro ZL1, or a does the same thing with a Dodge Viper. Or tapes himself wringing out Italian exotics at triple-digit speeds on public roads. That kind of horseplay rarely involves mass-market metal because it's not worth getting caught running red lights in a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero - except that actually happened, too. But we still don't understand the mechanic at Peak Kia North in Windor, CO, who used a customer's Kia Soul as his own car for four days and put 200 miles on it. Owner Veronica Pief discovered the nonsense when she downloaded the 17 hours of driving video from her dashcam. She dropped the Soul off to have its speed-volume control fixed, but got it back with the extra mileage and the volume problem still hadn't been remedied. It got worse when she said of the dealership, "Afterwards, they just blew us off. They didn't care. They didn't show any concern." Sometime between that disrespect and Denver's KUSA 9NEWS doing a story on it, the dealer decided it should fix the situation. Pief said she wanted the dealer to buy her car back and pay off the loan, which sounds extreme, but she might have been thinking about the verbiage in her owner's manual. Kia is one of the automakers that's strict about voiding warranties if it deems a car has been abused. Peak Kia North gave Pief what she wanted just one day after the original story ran, buying the car back from her with plans to auction it and donate the proceeds to charity. And yes, the mechanic was fired. You can watch the local news report above. Related Video: News Source: Detroit Free Press, 9NEWS Auto News Kia Car Dealers Hatchback Videos viral video colorado

Automatically efficient | 2017 Kia Optima Hybrid Quick Spin

Automakers are stuck between a rock and hard place with hybrid vehicles. On one hand, efficient hybrids are a necessary evil – for lack of a better phrase – to hit increasingly stringent CAFE standards. But on the other hand, low fuel prices mean it takes an increasingly long time for consumers to see a return on the investment of a hybrid's price premium. These factors have pushed automakers even harder to squeeze every mile per gallon possible out their hybrid offerings. That's inevitably led to powertrain innovations designed to maximize just how long and how far hybrids can run on pure electric power and how often the gas engine can shut down. Occasionally, this doesn't work out all that well – as is the case with the new Nissan Rogue Hybrid, for instance – but there are companies getting things right. Kia, with its 2017 Optima Hybrid, is one of them. Drive Notes Kia didn't try to get too creative with the Optima Hybrid's powertrain for 2017. There's a 2.0-liter, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder gas engine, a 38-kilowatt electric motor, and a 1.62-kWh battery pack. Total system output is 192 horsepower and 271 pound-feet of torque, with EPA estimated fuel economy ratings of 39 miles per gallon in the city and 46 mpg on the highway for a 42-mpg combined rating. That's all spiffy. But taking a six-speed automatic and replacing the torque converter with a clutch and the electric motor, Kia built a hybrid sedan that smoothly intertwines disparate power sources as well as a conventional hybrid like a Toyota Prius, while allowing the Optima Hybrid to take greater advantage of zero-emissions systems. Lift off the throttle and the four-cylinder engine shuts down and lets the 50-hp electric motor handle light, constant-throttle cruising below 62 miles per hour. Dig deeper into the gas, and the petrol powerplant quickly restarts and delivers the bulk of the Optima's power for heavy acceleration and higher-speed conditions. The Optima's back and forth is rarely disjointed – Kia's hybrid feels a lot like its conventionally powered model in normal driving. It's only under sudden, wide-open throttle situations, where the hybrid systems feel caught off guard, that the Optima Hybrid feels flatfooted. A less obvious benefit of the six-speed automatic, of course, is that it leads to quieter operation. There's no rubber-band-like revving like you'd get with a CVT because the transmission can actually shift up a gear.