Now that Tesla 3 is no longer recommended, the Prius and Prius Prime have moved up to fill the #1 spot.
78 is not such a great number; kind of like a B- on a term paper. For comparison, a Subaru Forester got an 88.
CR car reviews have always been sketchy. They review with a bias for features they think cars should have, and they typically treat cars like appliances. The only useful part of their car reports, in my opinion, is user reliability data. If I have a car that I like, I don't really care what CR has to say about it.
I go to the negative aspects first when scanning product reviews, as they contain more of the stuff I really want to know. PS: Forums such as this have provided far more useful information to me.
CR also rated Firestone 500 tires #1 decades ago. One day back then a car rolled by me on I-25 as one of the Firestone 500 tires literally disintegrated. She pulled over as did I to help. I pointed out all of these tires were on recall due to their obvious safety defect(s). She said that must be why Firestone is so nice whenever they fall apart and she needs to get another one of them replaced!
Treating a car like an appliance is fine. The issue with CR, and other reviews, is when the reviewer dings a product over a minor feature, which may have no bearing on how it performs. My parting with CR started with a pet food review that only looked at the protein, fat, fiber, and cost. I perform those tests, and could make a pet "food" out of saw dust, urea, and used motor oil that would have been CR's top pick.
