You ’re in the market for a new hardening of wheels , and you require to verify the cars you ’re inquire have a reputation for being reliable vehicles . Once you ’ve exhausted your ally and home with questions , where do you turn for advice ? The Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings might be a good position to start .
For these ratings , Consumer Reports look at information from hundreds of thousands of machine possessor . It also looks at many different car models and reports one by one on models with unlike engine or trim line . It do work independently from automaker , so it does n’t need to worry about miss publicizing sales event for giving a vehicle a inadequate paygrade . And it interprets its finding without get to report them back to automakers . It report all the data it collects , not just the data it collects on the automobile with the best results .
Unlike J.D. Power ’s survey based on the first 90 days of possession and its Vehicle Dependability study which tail 3 - year - quondam vehicle , the Consumer Reports survey asks for reader ' opinions about their cars over the course of the last 12 months . bulge out in 2006 , the Consumer Reports survey begin rating 10 model years for auto ; in other words , it rates a particular example of car from the time when it ’s sword new to when that same model car is 10 years old . This helps to give a more complete picture of the car ’s carrying into action throughout the life of the model .
Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings also gives a " projected reliableness , " which shows how well a fresh theoretical account is likely to perform ground on proprietor ' experience with the model over the past three years . The Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings also can help you determine whether to purchase a finicky used vehicle . The " used car verdict " extend you a model ’s dependableness in the major bother spots . This section of the theme gives more weight to major problems , since they ’re more pricey to restore .
On the next page , we ’ll take a look at how Consumer Reports hoard datum to come up with the ranking .
How Consumer Reports Auto Ratings Are Determined
Consumer Reports rank gondola using two methods : First , it sends out surveys to inquire consumer about the overall operation of their vehicles . Second , it checks this data against its own run , which are conducted on a trial track .
After resume results are tabulated , railroad engineer then test the vehicle on the Consumer Reports Test Track . They hunt down a serial publication of 50 performance tests to check against the data from the 1.4 million reader from whom they ’ve collected data point .
To maintain their goal of subjectivity , Consumers Union , the owner of Consumer Reports , purchases the cars for testing . Once they ’re on the path , the cars are driven through various courses that let in straight tracks , sideslip pads , stone hill for off - roading and crisp turns to test for handling . engineer look at how well auto speed , brake and rag , and they also check out up on safety equipment , fuel economy , comfortableness and load volume . They compare the information hoard from the survey with their own determination on the track .
Additionally , in gild to test transmissions , railroad engineer drive vehicle through mile of metropolis and state roads and high - speeding interstates . While drive , they make hard stops and sharp turns to see how well vehicles answer to shimmy in speeding and focussing .
Both parts of the test are very important . For example , while a car might perform quite well on the trial caterpillar tread , it may get bad review from the great unwashed deal with the vehicle on a daily fundament . The combination of reliability data and performance tests helps to inform consumers about the best vehicle for them .
For more data about types automotive ratings , study on to the next page .
Types of Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings
When you hold back into a fomite , you ’ll be able to drill down to many different specific parts to see how they fare in tests and survey . Here ’s a leaning of the various fomite areas rated by Consumer composition :
Consumer Reports requires a minimum sample distribution size of 100 cars to publish auto reliability info ; however , most models have much orotund sample numbering into the thousands . Because of the minimum demand of 100 cars for a sample , Consumer Reports ca n’t publish entropy on every model of railway car . Despite this , they ’re report commonly matches well with car sale trends .
Obtaining Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings
you’re able to prevail a full Consumer Report for your possible machine by subscribing to either the organisation ’s web web site or powder magazine . A subscription to the entanglement web site costs $ 26 per year [ source : Consumer Reports ] . When you go to the Consumer Reports WWW site , you may access a listing of vehicle model that have been pass judgment by consumer .
Second - level vehicles , indicated by a check inside a circle , forgather even more strict road map . In addition to meet all of the first - tier requirements , these cars are included in front - offset and side - clang tests conducted by the Institute for Highway Safety and give very estimable crash protection [ source : Consumer Reports ] .
Improving Consumer Reports Automotive Ratings
If auto company are n’t happy with how their car are rank by Consumer Reports , there are a number of things they can do to improve their rankings . Their engineer can study any domain in which their model fall shortsighted and work to improve those tip on the elevator car .
Additionally , caller are work to make their cars more " dark-green " by improving the mi per Imperial gallon that their railway car require . American automakers have been working hard in recent years to meliorate their rankings . In oecumenical , Nipponese auto incline to rank higher than American car . For illustration , the Nipponese automaker Subaru is consistently rate eminent by consumer and tests well on the road .
To entrance up with Japanese automakers , American company like Ford have been working to improve their vehicles drive calibre , quietness and electrical function [ reservoir : MSNBC ] . Some of their new model , such as the Ford Flex and F-150 , have begun to rank at the top of their vehicle course of study . But just because a car is Japanese does n’t mean that it will rank well ; the Honda Element , Mitsubishi Eclipse , and Toyota Yaris each scored low in Consumer Report Tests [ source : Consumer Reports ] .
