Infiniti Tops List of America’s Least-Liked Car Brands

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 5, 9:38AM EST

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Infiniti Tops List of America’s Least-Liked Car Brands — © Courtesy of Infiniti

Among the most carefully followed research on car quality, the Consumer Reports owner satisfaction survey comes out once a year. It is used by a large number of U.S. car buyers to make their new car selections. Infiniti, the luxury arm of Japan’s Nissan, took the bottom position this year. Its spot on the list almost certainly will cost it sales. It cannot afford that. It is already among the lowest-selling luxury brands in America.

The research covers opinions about 369,000 vehicles for model years from 2018 to 2020. The primary score is based on the answer to this question: Would you buy again? Other metrics include driving, comfort, in-car electrics, storage and value. All in all, it is as complete a list of criteria as that from any similar study.

The score on the study is based on a potential total of 100. Tesla ranks first with a score of 88. Infiniti, in last place, had a score of 48, just ahead of its parent Nissan, which had a score of 58. Infiniti received average scores for driving and comfort. Its scores for in-car electronics and value were at the lowest level possible.

Infiniti has fallen so far behind other luxury brands in the United States that it can never rise into the top tier based on sales. It sits behind Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Acura, Cadillac, Lincoln, Land Rover and Volvo, as measured by unit sales.
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Part of Infiniti’s disadvantage is its very limited number of models. It offers one sedan, one coupe and three sport utility vehicles. Nissan has made the decision to give Infiniti only the most modest support, or it would expand the lineup so it could be competitive.

Nissan’s short-term problem is that any future investment moves into headwinds of a terrible, widely followed review of Infiniti’s quality.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.