Consumer Reports New Cars

WHEN YOU’RE BUYING a new car, it can feel like everyone you encounter just wants to sell you something and there’s nobody out there you can trust. CR is here to help! You can rely on our recommendations because we have information no one else has. This issue of Consumer Reports New Cars has the latest data from our exclusive owner satisfaction survey of CR members, where we found out how much they love—or dislike—their current vehicles. It also includes responses from our reliability surveys. Because the only thing better than a satisfying car is one that doesn’t need repeated repairs. This year we gathered data on over 330,000€cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, and wagons. But that’s not all. We buy our own vehicles to test rather than rely on samples…

Q. Do cars come equipped with lights that shine on one side of a vehicle when turning? To aid visibility in turns, some cars come with lights at the corners that illuminate during low-speed turns. Often referred to as “cornering lights” or “side illumination lights,” these activate as you enter a turn, such as when making a 90-degree left- or right-hand turn in a dark subdivision. However, they don’t work at higher speeds, mostly because drivers aren’t making such sharp turns on the highway. The newer technology is called adaptive headlights, which swivel while you steer. There is also a still-newer lighting technology, called adaptive driving beam, where you are essentially driving with high beams illuminated all of the time, but glare is blocked to oncoming and followed traffic. Audi…

Shopping for a new car means deciding between buying and leasing, which is often a tough call. On the one hand, buying usually involves higher monthly payments, but in the long run you’ll pay less and you’ll own an asset—your vehicle. On the other hand, a lease typically has lower monthly payments and lets you drive a vehicle that may be more expensive than you could afford to buy, but you could get into a cycle in which you never stop paying for a vehicle. It might seem as though there’s no such thing as a good deal on a new car anymore. With high prices and interest rates, both leasing and financing cost more than ever. The average monthly lease payment at the end of 2023 was $606 and…

ACCORDING TO THE data analytics company Experian, 30.7 percent of EV drivers chose a lease in 2023, up from just 9.8 percent in 2022. It’s easy to see why. Lessees can qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 without meeting restrictive requirements on where an EV or PHEV was made, how much it cost, or the lessee’s income—all of which apply to purchases. Some automakers also discount leases on EVs and PHEVs to help sell vehicles that meet emissions rules. Leasing an EV makes sense for other reasons, too, says Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of auto testing. “Prices and rebates on EVs have been fluctuating quite widely, making resale values impossible to predict,” he says. For example, both Ford and Tesla have recently cut the prices…

IF YOU HAVE your heart set on a fun-to-drive vehicle even though it scores below average in CR’s reliability ratings, leasing may be the way to go, says Steven Elek, program leader for automotive data analytics at CR. “While it still may be a hassle to bring an unreliable vehicle to the dealer for repairs, at least it’s under warranty while you’re driving it,” he says. “Then it’s somebody else’s headache when you turn it in at the end of a lease.” The vehicles below have high road-test and owner satisfaction scores but lower-than-average reliability. It would be better to lease one rather than buy—but only if you can find a good deal that also makes financial sense. ALFA ROMEO TONALE OVERALL SCORE Super-Stylish This quick Italian plug-in hybrid is…

To accurately compare one car with another, you should test-drive all of your candidate vehicles on the same day, preferably on the same or similar roads. It's why we put all the cars we test through the same evaluations. If you can’t do all of the driving in a day, take down notes on your cell phone when you finish each drive so that you can review your findings at a later date. Before your test drive, be sure to check these items off your to-do list. GRADE YOUR OWN CAR Make a list of the things you like and dislike about it, including performance, comfort, features, fuel economy, controls, and any idiosyncrasies. Jotting down all of your gripes—large and small—will help make sure that you don't overlook those things…