By Xu Aiying and Son Gina

Hyundai Motor's luxury brand Genesis won the title Best Car Brand of the Year from the U.S. magazine Consumer Reports.

On Consumer Reports' “Brand Report Card,” Genesis got 81 points out of 100, taking first place among 34 other car brands.

The rankings are the result of a comprehensive evaluation of reliability, customer satisfaction, and safety, as well as the driving performance of each brand, covering more than 640,000 vehicles.

Following Genesis, Audi and BMW were ranked second and third, respectively, getting 80 points and 79 points. In addition to Genesis, Kia Motors ranked sixth, with 76 points, and Hyundai Motor was 12th, with 70 points.

Jake Fisher, an automotive performance tester at Consumer Reports, said that, “Genesis has been rated well for reliability as well as technical convenience,” and, “Many luxury brands’ technology is too complicated and difficult to deal with, but Genesis’ is not," in explaining why Genesis was selected as the top brand, in an interview with CNBC.

Late last year, Genesis received a good score on the list of Car Brands Ranked by Ownership Satisfaction that was announced by Consumer Reports on Dec. 21, coming in third after Tesla and Porsche.

xuaiy@korea.kr