Foreign brands shut out Detroit in Consumer Reports’ 2013 top car rankings

Every year, Consumer Reports lists its picks for the best cars and trucks for sale based on a combination of road test and reliability surveys from its 8 million subscribers. This year, for the first time since 2007, every top spot was taken by Asian and European automakers — and by its measures, every Detroit automaker has a long road back to the top.

Of the 11 cars named as top in their class by the magazine, Toyota and Honda won three titles apiece, with the rest split between Hyundai, Subaru, Audi and BMW. The Ford Mustang was unseated as Consumer Reports’ favorite sports car in favor of the twin Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ.

And while Detroit usually wins the pickup category, as it did in 2012 with the Chevrolet Avalanche, Consumer Reports gave no award this year, citing the yet-to-be-build redesign of the Chevy and GMC pickups and that it hadn’t tested the updated Ram full-size truck.

[See all of Consumer Reports' Top Picks for 2013 here]

Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ director of testing, said the revival of Honda a year after it was shut out of the top picks was the biggest surprise, with the Honda Accord named best sedan, the Odyssey best minivan and the new CR-V best small SUV.

“The Japanese brands are raising the bar,” Fisher said.