Fans of domestic and European cars have been critical of Consumer Reports for including only Japanese models on its list of “top picks.” Aware that some people will only buy a domestic car, the magazine has issues a second “top picks” list composed entirely of domestic models.
Beyond the fact that the formulas used to calculate overall scores remain secret, I’m not sure what to think of this.
On the one hand, domestic car fans now know which ones Consumer Reports thinks they should buy. On the other, this list suggests that domestic cars without exception occupy a second tier. It’s an official recognition that they just can’t compete.
Oddly, a couple major car magazines used to do something similar, but no longer do. For years Car and Driver divided its “ten best cars” evenly between imports and domestics. And for years Motor Trend always gave its Car of the Year award to a domestic car, and had a second Import Car of the Year award for imports. Both stopped doing this because domestic cars became more competitive, and because it was no longer so clear what counted as a domestic car.
One notable difference: in those cases the awards were totally segregated. In Consumer Reports’ case, domestics remain eligible for the primary list. They just don’t get on it.
But why provide such a list now? I suppose because the entire list has been Japanese only recently. But if domestic cars have been improving, then why are they only now being shut out?
Well, it seems their position was always tenuous. Looking over past annual auto issues, the only segments domestics achieved the top spot were in pickups, minivans, and small cars. The Japanese only recently started offering competitive minivans in 1998, and competitive full-size pickups in the last few years.
Ironically, this leaves the small car segment as the only one in which the Japanese truly competed yet a domestic car won in recent memory. And then Ford dropped the ball by failing to update the Focus.
Perhaps newer domestic products will prove more competitive. Problem is, it’s a year and a half between the time such products appear in the fall and the time Consumer Reports publishes its Top Picks. I’d personally like to know which new models are reliable enough to be recommended while they’re still new models. That’s why TrueDelta’s research process is designed to provide reliability information on new models much sooner than that used by Consumer Reports.
For example, the new GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook are good enough to redefine the large crossover segment. Consumer Reports should love them. But they’ll only be eligible for these lists next March, a year from now, because Consumer Reports hasn’t even started collecting reliability data on them. In contrast, TrueDelta will have initial reliability information on these models in May, with more solid results in August. And next March, when Consumer Reports has only a few months of data on these cars, TrueDelta will have a full year of data on them.
The automotive landscape could change drastically over the next few years, perhaps even drastically enough to challenge the dominance of Japanese manufacturers in many segments. Waiting a year or more for these changes to be noted is too long.