Consumer Reports: Dodge Challenger Owners Most Satisfied

Consumer Reports: Dodge Challenger Owners Most Satisfied

Consumer Reports threw a curve to conventional wisdom this week when it announced the findings of its Annual Auto Survey that Dodge Challenger owners are the happiest of all with

their purchase.

The survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National

Research Center, said the Dodge Challenger, V8-powered

muscle car, beat out the longstanding Toyota Prius hybrid as the most satisfying car among its readers. Ninetytwo percent of Challenger owners said they would definitely buy another.

The second most satisfying car, with 91 percent of respondents saying they would definitely buy another, was the Ford Fusion Hybrid. Sports cars and hybrids round out the top group: the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911, Toyota Prius, and all-wheel drive Acura TL.

Several other fuel-efficient small cars also earned outstanding satisfaction ratings from their owners: The Volkswagen Jetta TDI (turbodiesel) sedan placed tenth.

U.S. automakers made significant gains in CRs survey this year, with nine percent making the top group. European makers led with 23 percent of their models in the top group. Twelve percent of Asian models made it to the top, including the Honda Odyssey minivan and Honda Ridgeline pickup. No minivans or pickups made the cut last year.

To make the top satisfaction list, at least 80 percent of a model’s owners must answer “definitely yes” to the question: “Considering all factors (price, performance, reliability, comfort, enjoyment, etc.), would you get this car if you had it to do all over again?”

At the other end of the spectrum, only ten models received the lowest satisfaction rating, indicating that less than half their owners would buy the same car again. All were older designs from Detroit-based automakers and most are scheduled to be discontinued.

The ratings are based on more than 380,000 responses from Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org subscribers on vehicles from the 2007 through 2010 model years.