Peter Lyon
November 21, 2025
The Honda Accord has placed in Car & Driver’s 10Best no less than a record 38 times, while the Prelude and Civic have snuck into the top magazine’s top 10, well, ten times a piece. So is it any wonder that Honda has now won the 2026 “Best Car Brand” award for the fifth consecutive year from U.S. News & World Report? The carmaker received high scores for the award’s key attributes of performance, interior quality, safety, and reliability for its passenger car models, including Civic, Civic hybrid, Civic Type R, Civic Si, Accord, and Accord hybrid.
An unparalleled success, the award-winning 11th-generation Civic is a gateway to the Honda brand and America’s most popular vehicle with Gen Z, first-time buyers and multicultural customers. Honda Civic is America’s best-selling compact car since 1973. A critical driver of brand loyalty for the Honda brand, the award-winning 11th-generation Accord is America’s most popular midsize vehicle with Millennial, Gen Z, and multicultural customers3.
Civic hybrid and Accord hybrid, are powered by the award-winning fourth-generation of the Honda two-motor hybrid-electric powertrain. The ultra-smooth and responsive Honda two-motor hybrid system helps maximize fuel-efficiency without compromising dynamic performance or passenger and cargo space to deliver a sportier and more pleasant driving experience. Civic hybrid was named the 2025 North American Car of the Year.
After evaluating 39 brands, U.S. News’ prestigious Best Vehicle Brands Awards recognize industry-wide excellence across six key segments of the automotive market, including cars, SUVs, trucks and luxury vehicles, honoring automakers with the most desirable key brand attributes that excite and attract car buyers. The winners have the best combination of performance, interior quality, safety and reliability in their categories.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
To determine the award winners, U.S. News Best Cars averaged the overall score of all the given brand’s products in each award class. The vehicle scores are derived from the U.S. News Best Cars rankings, which take into account a range of data points like safety ratings and reliability data, as well as the consensus opinion of the automotive press. The brand with the highest average score was designated the winner in that specific category.
