US News & World Report on Cars

There are those of us who spend most of our free time reading about cars online, in magazines, trade papers, visiting car manufacturing plants, auto shows, etc. Then there are people who don't really think about cars until its time to purchase one. If you don't track the automotive business on semi-regular basis it can become a bit overwhelming. Some folks deal with this by simply sticking with what they know. For example my neighbor buys a Camry every time he needs a new car. He doesn't even drive anything else, he just wants a Camry. Judging by visitors to his driveway, many of his friends and family feel the same way. Then there are some folks who are open to other brands, but they don't want to spend a lot of time looking. These types of buyers will flock to "buyer's guides" to help narrow the field. There are a million buyer's guides out there. However, US News and World Report thinks it has stumlbed onto something new.

US&WR claims to be "taking the bias out of the advice" by surveying the reviews of more than 100 "reputable sources." A one to ten point scale is used to assign values to the reviews and then "proprietary software" crunches the data. The magazine has a new website, humbly billed as "the only automotive website you'll ever need," with all the rankings and various ways to access the data. You can check it out by visiting here.

Want to know what to expect? Camry ties with the Accord in "Affordable Midsize Cars" with the Ford Fusion in close range. Honda CR-V slightly edges out the RAV4 in "Affordable Compact SUVs." BMW 5-Series squeaks past the Mercedes E-Class in "Luxury Large Cars." The Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Suburban sweep the "Affordable Large SUV" class.

I suppose that review aggregators like this have their place. Some folks simply want to buy the "best car" and be done with it. Personally I can't play that way. US&WR raises a good point about contrasting reviews and how subjective the whole business of reviewing a car's performance is. However, for me variety is the spice of life. I enjoy reading all types of automotive reviews. Most of the time I pick out pieces in each article that I disagree/agree with. Yes, you can buy a Camry and it will probably serve you faithfully for many years. But what about the sporty performance of the Honda Accord, Mazda6 or Nissan Altima? Or how about rolling the dice and taking a huge price break on a Saab 9-3? What about the new Malibu headed our way? No matter how you drill down through the data at some point you're going to have to drill into your heart. Yes it is true that what you might find there is a Camry but it just might be something you never expected.