For each car in the U.S. News rankings, our editors analyze credible third-party reviews about the car to come up with a score representing what professional critics says about it. The reviews are gathered from major newspapers, magazines websites. For each third-party review, we score the car on four different components:

* Performance. The performance score represents the reviewer's written assessment of a car's handling, braking, acceleration, ride quality and other qualitative performance measures.
* Interior. The interior score represents the reviewer's written assessment of the car's interior comfort, features, cargo space, styling and build quality.
* Exterior. The exterior score represents the car's eye-catching appeal and perceived build quality.
* Overall Recommendation. The recommendation score represents the overall tone and recommendation level the reviewer places on a car.

In addition to the analysis of professional reviews, we add information of particular interest to consumers, such as safety and reliability data, that isn't part of the critics' qualitative reviews.

* Safety. The safety score is based on a compilation of scores from leading safety rating sources, including the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
* Reliability. The reliability score contributing to the U.S. News rankings is the Predicted Reliability rating provided by J.D. Power and Associates. This score is based on trending the past three years of historical initial quality and dependability data from J.D. Power's automotive studies, specifically the Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) and the Initial Quality Study (IQS).