CR report on least, and most expensive brands to maintain.

Yeah it's been one of their dirty little secrets for quite some time. 2 decades ago when the dollar still had value, we fortunately had to have our Range Rover's transfer case replace just a few days before the warranty ended. $6,000 just for the part.
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Land Rover has had a bad reputation for a long time, like most British vehicles, but Buick is an odd one.
I’d have to see the criteria, I don’t trust cr and would never use their recommendations

 

IMHO; this is simply comparison of name plates. The sample covered the last 12 months maintenance record of whatever a car owner recalls. Since free maintenance wasn't corrected for, some companies got a "leg up", cost = zero.
Buick got lucky and was probably a very small sample size of newer cars. Most of us know about GM overall reliability.

A more useful comparison would be to lump BEV, Hybrid, and gas only together then break down into make and model reliability. That would be more useful. If your shopping for a BEV, it would be nice to know the true cost of ownership. Years 1-5, then 5-10 and 10-15, would give us a better picture on what to buy and estimated cost of ownership.

 

Should really just do out of warranty cars, since early maintenance is so similar

 

They already have a separate ranking of reliability by model and brand, including over time.

Buick includes one free visit vs 2 years of maintenance from Toyota. That would give Toyota the advantage, but the costs are higher for the first 5 years. Chevy's number are pretty close to them, so it isn't some fluke Buick matches Toyota. Could the lack of trucks for Buick as GMC is further down the list.

Then there are the variables this survey doesn't account for. What are the dealer service price differences between brands? Same for parts? Are the owners of a brand using a dealer, a cheaper independent shop, or even doing the work themselves? Are some owners even skimping of maintenance?