Meet the Toughest Car Critics in America

Meet the Toughest Car Critics in America Giving consumers the most thorough product information requires expertise and experience. No other publication has a facility like ours, in Colchester, Conn. Our staff of 30 engineers, editors, statisticians, and support staff put vehicles, tires, and child safety seats through rigorous testing year-round. We buy all of the products we test—rather than borrow them from manufacturers—so we can remain independent in our evaluations. Our team also churns through reams of survey data to bring you the detailed reliability, safety, and owner satisfaction insights you need to buy your next vehicle. What makes our auto testing unique? We spent about $2.6 million on cars last year. We buy all of our tested cars and don’t rely on freebies or on exotic press junkets paid for by automakers. We shop like you shop. We buy cars anonymously, at dealerships. Reviewers for other publications often base their judgments on loaners hand-picked by manufacturers. We drive. And drive some more. Our tested vehicles are each driven thousands of miles over several months. At many other publications, reviews are often based on just a day or week of seat time. We’re test crazy. Every vehicle undergoes more than 50 tests, including evaluations for braking, accident avoidance, fuel economy, and acceleration. We’re unbought and unbossed. We take no advertising of any kind, so we have no one to please but you. Which is why … We tell it like it is. Lots of magazines will list their top cars of the year. We’re the lone voice that will also reveal the clunkers, junkers, and rip-offs. We can tell the future. This is what no one else can do: We can predict how reliable your new car will be based on our exclusive surveys that cover more than a million ownership experiences per year, as reported by our subscribers. We sum it up in a single Overall Score. Combining road test, reliability, safety, and owner satisfaction into a single rating helps consumers quickly see how models compare. Learn more about how we test cars. Consumer Reports Auto Test Center Road-Test Course Our 1.2-mile handling circuit consists of long straightaways and sweeping curves designed to challenge a vehicle’s acceleration, braking, and cornering capabilities. We evaluate ride comfort on our private course, which has the kind of potholes, undulations, and drainage grates that drivers encounter every day. We judge the illumination distance and intensity of headlights on moonless nights. Inside Jobs Our Auto Test Center is about more than just cars; buildings on our campus house various other testing programs. We buy and stock over 500 tires each year for evaluation. Hundreds of child seats are tested for fit and ergonomics. And we use our professional photo and video studio to share our findings. Vehicle Dynamics This 100,000-square-foot area is where our engineers and technicians conduct braking and handling tests for tires under wet conditions. Our facilities staff prepares the surfaces so we can evaluate tire resistance to hydroplaning. Through the trees on the right, we have constructed a steep rock hill to see how four-wheel-drive vehicles handle tough terrain. “You can get a lot more for less with a reliable used car.” —Jake Fisher, director of auto testing, evaluates and rates every vehicle we test. “Even for the shortest trips, make sure everyone is safely buckled in.” —Jennifer Stockburger, the test center’s director of operations, oversees our tests of child seats and car-safety systems. “Check the pressure in your tires—including the spare—once a month.” —Gene Petersen, who manages our tire program, has more than 35 years of experience leaving rubber on the road as a professional tester. “Always have your vehicle and pricing data in hand when you’re ready to shop at a dealership.” —Anita Lam, our auto program’s data manager, analyzes our Annual Auto Survey and oversees all of the data generated by our vehicle testing.  Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.

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