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Consumer Reports (CR) revealed its annual Report Card for automakers on Tuesday and for the second year in a row Tesla received the highest award for a motor vehicle.

In its April issue, Consumer Reports tested 270 automobiles on performance, reliability, and safety. Tesla鈥檚 Model S sport sedan won the top spot on CR鈥檚 top 10 list for best vehicle.

鈥淭esla has our overall top pick,鈥� says Jake Fischer, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. 鈥淭hey are producing a vehicle that is luxurious, sporty, roomy, practical, [and] extremely energy efficient.... They are really being quite innovative in the whole user experience.鈥�

As , no other vehicle 鈥渨as able to eclipse the innovation, magnificence, and sheer technological arrogance of the Tesla.鈥� The $89,650 Tesla Model S 鈥� a 鈥渢echnological tour de force鈥� 鈥� received a test score of 99 and managed what CR refers to as an 鈥渁verage鈥� reliability score (three out of five points).

To make it to the top of the coveted charts, vehicles must preform at or near the top on overall road test scores, respond effectively in crash and rollover tests executed by insurance companies or governments, and rank average or better on predicted reliability based on problems reported by 1.1 million CR subscribers.

While the Model S may have won best in show, Tesla was not the top brand performer. That honor went to Toyota鈥檚 luxury division, Lexus, which held tight to its supremacy of brand rankings and received the highest scores for the third year in a row.

鈥淭o take full measure of how the automakers stack up, our brand Report Cards provide a composite of the average road-test score and predicted reliability across their lineup,鈥� . 鈥淭he overall scores show which automakers get it right in performance and reliability.鈥�

Lexus vehicles preformed at a 鈥渧ery good鈥� level during road tests and showed 鈥渟olid reliability across the board.鈥�

Consumer Reports has been evaluating auto brands since 1997, but began ranking vehicles on both reliability and performance just three years ago. The Report Cards have showed a pattern of Japanese automakers dominating the industry, but this year brought 鈥渟ome shuffling up of the deck.鈥�

While Tesla and Lexus hogged the spotlight, Buick, one of three American companies to make the top 10 list, also made out quite well this year.

鈥淚t was interesting to see Buick break into the top 10 at No. 7,鈥� Mr. Fischer says. 鈥淏uick is really getting things together and making some vehicles that drive well, they test well, and the reliability continues to improve.鈥�

As Fischer went on to say, 鈥測ou really can鈥檛 discount Subaru, which is not only in the top 10, but has three of our 10 top picks this year ... which is quite amazing for a single manufacture to have that.鈥�

With winners, there must be losers, and there is no question who the biggest loser is this year.

鈥淔iat [is] right down at the very bottom of the list, which was attributed to both the performance of the car鈥檚 testing and the reliability,鈥� Fischer says. 鈥淭he worst vehicle reliability that we have in our data set is the Fiat 500L.鈥�

Fiat need not hang its head too low; its misery has plenty of company. Jeep, Mini, Dodge, Ford, and Chrysler rounded out the bottom of the list with the Italian automaker (which is also owned by Chrysler).

鈥淎s a whole ... all of [Chrysler鈥檚] products seems to be having some reliability issues,鈥� Fischer says. 鈥淭here are very few Chrysler or Fiat products that [rank] average or above.... Most of them are below average.鈥�

Fischer went on to mention that Jeep and Dodge also have very few vehicles that meet even average standards, though one might wonder how anyone preforms well on this list with the record recalls in 2014. The second annual was released Tuesday and showed a record number of recalls last year, which included Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The company ended up recalling 4.3 times more cars and trucks than it sold last year, but as Fischer went on to explain, the number of recalls is actually a positive thing for consumers.

鈥淭here is a in the April magazine all about the recalls.... We鈥檙e trying to explain what that means to consumers, because it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean your car is unreliable if it gets recalled,鈥� Fischer says. 鈥淩eally, the issue is that the bar is being raised and we鈥檙e getting to the point where even a chance of something going wrong is just not acceptable.鈥�

As Fischer puts it, we are in a new era of more recalls: 鈥淐ars are more reliable than they have been, they鈥檙e safer than they have been, so even though there are many recalls, that doesn鈥檛 mean the industry is going down hill.鈥�