Hi,

I picked up the paper copy at Costco this afternoon and thought I'd make a quick pass through it ... with commentary. There are more details in the issue and I would recommend it as a good read. By all means, feel free to add details I missed. There were good references to other hybrids including the Ford Escape and Lexus.

GREEN CAR (pp. 8)

MIDSIZED SUV (pp. 9)

BEST & WORST (pp. 10)

From CNW Marketing as published by Chris Demorro, "So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. . . . If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot."At the time, we called the Aveo a piece of dung and the CNW claims about the Hummer per mile cost, nonsense. Later in this issue, Consumer Reports cost/year over 5 years:Best city mpg (pp. 11)
... and the worst [Safety] (pp. 12)

Used-car reliability (pp. 13)

Most bang for the buck (pp. 18)

So looking at their table of Best new-car values (pp. 19,) we find these:The Prius, the target of CNW Marketing's ire in 2006, has turned out to be in the April 2009 Consumer Reports, a top dog value. Furthermore, who followed the advice of CNW Marketing, the Chevy Aveo and Hummer, have basket cases.

Bob Wilson

 

I have the electronic version of Consumer Reports--no trees are cut down for this purpose --and many readers have had a long standing issue with CR's "scoring" of vehicles. CR refuses to reveal how they arrive at the score of the vehicle. In other words, what percent do the various categories "handling-fit and finish-economy-etc." play in arriving at the final score. In reading the fuel economy reviews of hybrids in particular, it is stunning how poor/low CR reported values are in comparison to owners that actually own these vehicles. It makes one think, performance remains the most important item for CR reviewers. In summary, don't rely upon just one source for your informaton.

 

As subscribes we have both and I've noticed the electronic version seems to lag the paper copy. They really are two mediums and the electronic version continues to look like a pale shadow of the paper copy.
I started looking at their scoring, especially safety, and noticed after making my own spreadsheet and assigning scores, I could figure out "safety." But I agree that they could be more open in their scoring as could Edmunds and all of the various automotive writers. It isn't as if their particular rankings have been that successful.
As long as the relative values are proportional to the EPA tests, I'm not too worried about their absolute values. What I have a problem with are automotive writers who obviously choose a driving profile to put their favorite 'hotness' in a good light along with comparing manual to automatic transmissions or other miss matched, "apples and oranges" comparisons. At best, they are treating their readers with contempt and revealing an astounding lack of knowledge and ethics.
I eventually figured that out and remain in a somewhat mixed state of mind about it. For example, electronic vehicle stability systems that use angular rate of change to feed back to the brakes and prevent a car from spinning out. Not to long ago, Edmunds turned it off on another vehicle and compared the maximum side load versus the Prius that has it on 24x7. This is a safety feature yet Edmunds turned it off to what ??? Don't use it??? They might as well say, replace your seat belts with terry cloth to save weight.

I would feel better if their rankings showed a 'bell curve' of all vehicles and then showed where their test vehicle showed up in the curve. If we're talking 2-3%, that is in the noise. But if we are seeing 10% differences, that would be significant.

Nice post, just offering some thoughts about the issues.

Bob Wilson

 

You know, I've never looked at CU's information quite the way either of you guys do/did. And I do use CU, even though I've stopped subscribing.

I thought they were just pointing out good value. Why pay a lot of money for a car that was poorly put together? Showed poor acceleration? Got lousy gas mileage?

Sometimes just a dose of common sense will win out. Hummer. Large. Prius small. Even without Prius' "hybrid-ness" I would think Prius would be cheaper out the door and get better gas mileage, and hence cheaper to operate.

 

I eventually figured that out and remain in a somewhat mixed state of mind about it. For example, electronic vehicle stability systems that use angular rate of change to feed back to the brakes and prevent a car from spinning out. Not to long ago, Edmunds turned it off on another vehicle and compared the maximum side load versus the Prius that has it on 24x7. This is a safety feature yet Edmunds turned it off to what ??? Don't use it??? They might as well say, replace your seat belts with terry cloth to save weight.