Hidden Gems: The Best Cars of 2022 That Nobody Bought Last Year
We’ll let you in on a little secret. These cars and SUVs might go overlooked at dealerships, but they’re all great choices.
Toyota Avalon
By Keith Barry
Data analysis by Anita Lam
Not every great car is a hit with buyers. Despite their excellent performance, reassuring reliability, and high owner satisfaction, some of the top-rated vehicles Consumer Reports recommends are duds at the dealership. Whether it’s due to style, size, vehicle type, or even the age of the design, these great vehicles tend to sit in showrooms.
We think some of them are worth a second look, especially in today’s tight market. So we searched for CR-recommended vehicles that sold fewer than 20,000 units in 2021, based on information available from the Automotive News Data Center. Each model represents a tiny fraction of the 15 million cars, SUVs, and light trucks sold in the U.S. last year. By comparison, Toyota sold more than 407,000 RAV4 SUVs in 2021.
Nearly all of the vehicles on this list are sedans, a body style that’s falling out of style as drivers gravitate toward SUVs and pickup trucks. Many of these vehicles are also older models. For instance, the Chrysler 300 hasn’t had a meaningful update since 2011, and the Nissan Maxima was last redesigned in 2016. As parts shortages squeeze the auto industry, manufacturers have cut production of some slow-selling sedans and even discontinued a few others to concentrate on more profitable trucks and SUVs instead.
We didn’t include slow-selling, high-end luxury models like the Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series, because they’re out of reach financially for most consumers. And as much as we love sporty two-seaters like the Mazda MX-5 Miata, Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman, and Toyota Supra, they’ve always tended to sell in low volumes—although we’d certainly support your decision to increase their sales numbers by adding one to your garage. We also left out EVs, which are a small—but rapidly growing—portion of overall vehicle sales. New cars that debuted midyear aren’t on the list, and we verified that the 2021 numbers weren’t related to shortages by checking for low sales in 2020 and 2019 as well.
The cars below are listed by Overall Score. If any of them pique your interest, we recommend you snag one soon as some of them, such as the superb Toyota Avalon, aren’t coming back for 2023.
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