Con­sumer Reports weighs in on the “Five Pop­u­lar Cars to Avoid” in its Sep­tem­ber issue. You are prob­a­bly expect­ing those mod­els to be sat­u­rated with Amer­i­can brands – cit­ing poor test­ing results and/or lousy reli­a­bil­ity, CR says.

Guess which brand is at the top of Con­sumer Reports’ list.

Here are CR’s (top 2) choices and a syn­op­sis of the magazine’s criticism:

• Honda Civic. Honda “took too many short­cuts in the lat­est redesign.” The sub­com­pact has a choppy ride, noisy cabin, vague steer­ing and mediocre inte­rior. At least it’s reliable.
• Toy­ota Prius C. The C is the least expen­sive Prius hybrid, get­ting 37 miles per gal­lon in the city and 43 mpg on the high­way. It’s not to be con­fused with the main­stay Prius that has earned Toy­ota its well-deserved mileage-leader rep­u­ta­tion in the past decade. The C “suf­fers from a stiff ride, noisy cabin, slow accel­er­a­tion and cheap-looking inte­rior trim.” Buy a Honda Fit, a non-hybrid, instead, the mag­a­zine recommends.

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