Don't Dismiss Consumer Reports

Motor City people often think the editors at Consumer Reports magazine are left-wing tree-hugging American-car-hating worshippers of anything made by the Japanese or Germans.

And they love anything that goes really slow and uses gasoline by the dropper.

I'm here to tell you that is just not true.

Here's why you have to stop dismissing CR and its critiques:

Detroit engineers and executives don't spend enough time in Hondas and Toyotas; they really don't understand how good they are. Detroiters think all the criticism of their vehicles is prejudiced ramblings, and they insist their vehicles are constantly improving but nobody recognizes the changes.

Well, you know that more and more consumers are buying cars and trucks with foreign nameplates. CR doesn't create the trends, but it does make them understandable.

Believe it or not, the CR testers are a bunch of car nuts just like you, and they don't automatically hate anything with a GM, Ford or Chrysler badge.

Three of them own old Mustangs. Rik Paul, the automotive editor who turns the tests into prose, spent nine years at Motor Trend.

But don't they hate anything that really goes? This is Consumer Reports, after all.

David Champion, who runs the auto test center, says, “I prefer 500 hp to 200.” His center has 19 employees and 327 acres (132 ha) including a test track (used to be a race track) in Connecticut. The new Mustang they tested was the 300-hp V-8 manual. They loved it so much they put it on the cover of their annual new car issue, labeling it “a performance bargain.” Editors also eagerly ran the Ford GT around the track and tested the blazingly fast BMW M3, Audi S4, and Cadillac CTS-V.

Champion describes the parkway near his office: “You've got 200 yards (183 m) maybe less, to merge back into the road with the oncoming traffic coming at 65-75 mph (105-121 km/h).” You merge fast or die. “That's why people are willing to pay for more horsepower,” he says. He's for pushing the envelope to save fuel, sure, but that's not the only goal. “My job is to educate the consumer, what's the best car you can get for your money,” he says.

The CR center tests four to six vehicles each issue, 11 issues a year. The 12th issue is all cars.

Yes, people buy CR for lots of other reasons, too, such as its rating of dishwashers, TVs, cell phones and pancake mixes. But cars are a big thing. CR spends $2 million a year buying new vehicles for testing and gets $1.4 million back selling them afterwards.

A new building to test headlights will soon be finished. How many times have you asked “Why doesn't this car have better headlights?” Maybe this will change when CR starts publishing the numbers on headlights.

It's time to start paying attention to what CR is saying. Before it's too late.

Jerry Flint is a columnist for, and a former senior editor of, Forbes magazine.