Strategic Vision Total Quality Award winners

Each year, Strategic Vision surveys new car buyers to find out what problems they've had with their cars in the first 90 days, as well as how much the owners enjoy the vehicles and what they perceive the cars' quality to be. Strategic Vision then analyzes the results to determine which are the best. This year 42,000 people were surveyed.

There are many different categories of vehicle in the survey, so what we have here are the various mainstream categories for cars, trucks and SUVs. There are some interesting picks in the list. Also of interest is the fact that the Tesla Model S has been supplanted as the highest-ranked vehicle overall. The new reigning champion is the Porsche Macan. Click on to see which cars won the different segments.

The midsize class is split between Nissan and Subaru. The Altima took home top honors for midsize sedan, while the Outback was rated highest among midsize hatchbacks. Admittedly, the Outback has grown in size and height enough that it might be more accurately classified as a crossover, but regardless it's worthy of its award. We discovered that it's astonishingly spacious, comes with standard all-wheel drive, has an engine that's powerful enough and returns solid fuel economy, and it's all available for a reasonable price of under $30,000.

The Nissan Altima on the other hand has us scratching our heads. There's nothing wrong with it. It's roomy and drives pleasantly enough. However, this segment is full of better options such as the Mazda6, Honda Accord, and Ford Fusion. There's just not much reason to pick an Altima over almost anything else. In fact, you might be better off picking the Outback's sedan twin, the Legacy.

For SUVs and Crossovers, Strategic Vision gave individual awards. In the small or "entry level" class, the Jeep Wrangler took home the laurels for SUV, and the Subaru Crosstrek won the crossover award. People tend to either love or hate the Wrangler. It has classic looks, impeccable off-road ability, and it's also almost impossible not to enjoy having the top down and the doors off. But it handles poorly, consumes plenty of fuel, and is generally crude. It's up to you to decide whether the benefits outweigh the issues.

The Subaru Crosstrek on the other hand is an all-around good choice. The newest model has quick, confident handling, good fuel economy and ground clearance with a hill descent control that will get you places a lot of crossovers won't. It's main weak point is a really weak engine, but that's something most subcompact and compact crossovers suffer from.