These Are the 10 Best Cars by Price in 2021

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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These Are the 10 Best Cars by Price in 2021

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What factors make a car among the best sold in America? Reliability, which is determined by the number of repairs a vehicle needs. Features, based on driverless capacity or electronics. Safety, based on airbags and crash avoidance technology. The factors vary from research study to research study. One of the best-known car rating organizations has just put out its 10 best car list.
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That is, the nonprofit Consumer Reports’ “10 Top Picks of 2021: Best Cars of the Year.” The selections need to rate well based on 50 tests at the firm’s Auto Test Center. They need to do well when Consumer Reports polled its members, and the vehicles also need to score well on independent safety tests. Finally, the research shows what car owners are likely to think of their vehicles in the future based on both customer satisfaction and reliability.

Unlike other ratings, Consumer Reports picks vehicles and groups them by price. It grouped vehicles priced under $25,000, another set priced between $25,000 and $35,000, another between $35,000 and $45,000 and a final set for $45,000 and above. It is an odd way to make selections, based on its methods of evaluation, since price should not be a primary consideration.
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Here are the winners and their scores based on a 100-point scale:

Under $25,000:

  • Small Car: Toyota Corolla (77 points)
  • Subcompact SUV: Mazda CX-30 (75)

$25,000 to $35,000

  • Hybrid: Toyota Prius (80)
  • Midsized Sedan: Toyota Camry (88)
  • Small SUV: Subaru Forester (89)

$35,000 to $45,000

  • SUV/Wagon: Subaru Outback (86)
  • Midsized Three-Row SUV: Kia Telluride (96)
  • Compact Pickup Truck: Honda Ridgeline (80)

$45,000 and above

  • Midsized SUV: Lexus RX (80)
  • Electric Car: Tesla Model 3 (75)

Click here to see the best-selling cars of the past year.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

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