Consumer Reports picks Genesis as top auto brand

Toyota has four of the 10 vehicles on Consumer Reports' annual top picks, the most of any brand.

The Toyota Corolla and Toyota Camry are the magazine's choice for best small and midsize cars. The Toyota Sienna led the minivan category and the Toyota Highlander is the best midsize SUV.

The Chevrolet Bolt electric car is best small green car, a new category. The Ford F-150 is the top full-size pickup truck.

The rankings are based on driving tests as well as reliability and satisfaction scores from Consumer Reports' subscribers. Top picks also must have standard automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems.

Consumer Reports' rankings are closely watched by the industry since many buyers make decisions based on its advice.

Here are some more details of the 2018 rankings:

— Hyundai Motor Co.'s luxury Genesis brand was the top performer in Consumer Reports' brand rankings, which are sorted by the number of models per brand that Consumer Reports recommends. But the magazine noted that it tested only two vehicles from the relatively new Genesis brand. Audi, BMW, Lexus and Porsche rounded out the top five brands. Electric car brand Tesla was eighth, with two of its four models recommended. Toyota was tenth, with 15 of its 20 models recommended.

— The Subaru Forester was the top pick among small SUVs for the fifth straight year. The Chevrolet Impala was the top pick among large sedans for the fourth straight year.

— Consumer Reports didn't recommend any vehicles from these 11 brands, either because of low road test scores, poor crash test performance or questionable reliability: Fiat, Jeep, Land Rover, Alfa Romeo, Mitsubishi, Jaguar, GMC, Dodge, Mini, Cadillac and Volvo.

— Consumer Reports, a Yonkers, New York-based nonprofit, buys all the vehicles it tests to ensure impartiality. It performs more than 50 tests on each vehicle and racks up around 6,000 miles of general driving in its tests.