New car models you should avoid
New car models you should avoid :With so many worthy new cars and trucks on the market, we had to look long and hard to quantify which just don’t make the grad.
To be sure, there are few obvious choices for a rogues’ gallery of new vehicles, as the vast majority of models perform at acceptable levels of performance, with average-or-better ratings for safety and reliability. “Automakers, as a whole, have made significant improvements in reducing traditional problems, particularly with vehicle interiors, engines and transmissions, and steering and braking during the past several years,” says David Sargent, vice president of global vehicle research at J.D. Power and Associates. “However, as manufacturers add new features and technologies to satisfy customer demand and new legislation, they face the potential for introducing new problems.”Translated, this means the devil is in the details when it comes to sorting out the best new cars and trucks from the less desirable ones these days.
Honda felt the wrath of Consumer Reports earlier this year when its redesigned Civic line of compact coupes and sedans was abruptly dropped from the magazine’s “recommended” list. Did the car’s engine or transmission blow up while being tested, or did it rollover repeatedly when taking a curve at high speed? Nope. The magazine’s experts cited lower-grade interior materials, somewhat higher levels of road noise and braking and handling qualities that were a notch below the best of the competition. Picky for sure, but that’s how far high the proverbial bar has been raised in recent years among small cars, with top-notch models like the Chevrolet Cruze and the recently redesigned Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra earning top grades.
Sometimes a single feature, improperly executed, can indelibly tarnish a model’s image. Case in point is the Ford Edge midsize crossover SUV that recently garnered a shockingly low grade in reliability from Consumer Reports. Buyers surveyed by the magazine slammed the vehicle’s high-tech MyFord Touch operating system that swaps traditional buttons, dials and gauges for a perplexing series of menu-driven displays and oddly unresponsive “touch points.” Ford has already announced it would be upgrading the system to make it more amenable for current and future owners to use in response to consumer feedback and CR’s criticism.
So what then separates the true clunkers from the merely mediocre models in dealers’ showrooms? We started by finding common threads among quality and reliability ratings from Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates, balanced with the results of our own ongoing new-car test-drives. (Full disclosure: we put at least 75 vehicles through their paces under real-world and higher-performance conditions each year; cars are supplied by automakers for week-long periods, but we do not participate in manufacturer-subsidized preview junkets.)
Of course we’re certain that for each of the models cited on our list of new-car clunkers there are myriad satisfied customers who’ll swear they’ve never had a problem with their trusted vehicular companions. That’s fine by us. Some of the cars on our list can indeed be enticing if sold at deep discounts and with hefty cash rebates. Still, bargain hunters beware. There are far more worthy models out there from which to choose that perform better and will wind up being superior long-term values.
1. Jeep Liberty-Dodge Nitro
These mechanically equivalent midsize traditional truck-based SUVs deliver stalwart off-road performance when properly equipped, but just feel rough and awkward in normal driving situations. They’re underpowered and come only with an antiquated four-speed automatic transmission. Their passenger cabins can be difficult to climb in and out of, with interior comfort lacking. The Liberty offers a unique sliding canvas roof as an option, which disgruntled consumers suggest is problematic. Each gets “below average” ratings from the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality and Reliability surveys and from Automotive Lease Guide for residual value.
Consumer Reports lists them among the lowest-scoring new-cars overall, with Intellichoice.com giving them poor grades for their relatively high ownership costs. And while these models get good ratings for frontimpact and roof-crush protection from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, they only get an acceptable rating for rear-impacts and a marginal score for sideimpact protection.
2. Chevrolet Colorado Canyon
Sales of small pickups like this duo from General Motors have fallen through the floor in recent years as buyers discovered they could obtain a full-size hauler with additional capabilities for not much more money. Fitted with either the standard four-cylinder engine or available fivecylinder powerplant the Colorado and Canyon are best for recreational use only. The trucks five-speed manual transmission is crude and the optional four-speed automatic is outdated. A is available, but its sheer overkill here and specifying it further narrows the price gap bsize models.
Both versions received below averageratings in the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality and Reliability surveys and are projected to retain below average resale values according to Automotive Lease Guide. Crewcab model which were specifically tested by the Institute for Insurance Highway Safety, arned an acceptable rating for occupant protection in frontal collisions a marginal score for roof strength and rearend impacts and a poorranking for protection in side-impact collisions.
3. Nissan Armada
This behemoth sportutility vehicle feels every bit aslarge on the road as it looks and is an unruly handful in urban environments, with parallel parking being particularly challenging. The Armada is for the most part an automotive dinosaur with most SUV buyers having long migrated o more tractable carbased crossover models.
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To be sure, there are few obvious choices for a rogues’ gallery of new vehicles, as the vast majority of models perform at acceptable levels of performance, with average-or-better ratings for safety and reliability. “Automakers, as a whole, have made significant improvements in reducing traditional problems, particularly with vehicle interiors, engines and transmissions, and steering and braking during the past several years,” says David Sargent, vice president of global vehicle research at J.D. Power and Associates. “However, as manufacturers add new features and technologies to satisfy customer demand and new legislation, they face the potential for introducing new problems.”Translated, this means the devil is in the details when it comes to sorting out the best new cars and trucks from the less desirable ones these days.
Honda felt the wrath of Consumer Reports earlier this year when its redesigned Civic line of compact coupes and sedans was abruptly dropped from the magazine’s “recommended” list. Did the car’s engine or transmission blow up while being tested, or did it rollover repeatedly when taking a curve at high speed? Nope. The magazine’s experts cited lower-grade interior materials, somewhat higher levels of road noise and braking and handling qualities that were a notch below the best of the competition. Picky for sure, but that’s how far high the proverbial bar has been raised in recent years among small cars, with top-notch models like the Chevrolet Cruze and the recently redesigned Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra earning top grades.
Sometimes a single feature, improperly executed, can indelibly tarnish a model’s image. Case in point is the Ford Edge midsize crossover SUV that recently garnered a shockingly low grade in reliability from Consumer Reports. Buyers surveyed by the magazine slammed the vehicle’s high-tech MyFord Touch operating system that swaps traditional buttons, dials and gauges for a perplexing series of menu-driven displays and oddly unresponsive “touch points.” Ford has already announced it would be upgrading the system to make it more amenable for current and future owners to use in response to consumer feedback and CR’s criticism.
So what then separates the true clunkers from the merely mediocre models in dealers’ showrooms? We started by finding common threads among quality and reliability ratings from Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates, balanced with the results of our own ongoing new-car test-drives. (Full disclosure: we put at least 75 vehicles through their paces under real-world and higher-performance conditions each year; cars are supplied by automakers for week-long periods, but we do not participate in manufacturer-subsidized preview junkets.)
Of course we’re certain that for each of the models cited on our list of new-car clunkers there are myriad satisfied customers who’ll swear they’ve never had a problem with their trusted vehicular companions. That’s fine by us. Some of the cars on our list can indeed be enticing if sold at deep discounts and with hefty cash rebates. Still, bargain hunters beware. There are far more worthy models out there from which to choose that perform better and will wind up being superior long-term values.
1. Jeep Liberty-Dodge Nitro
These mechanically equivalent midsize traditional truck-based SUVs deliver stalwart off-road performance when properly equipped, but just feel rough and awkward in normal driving situations. They’re underpowered and come only with an antiquated four-speed automatic transmission. Their passenger cabins can be difficult to climb in and out of, with interior comfort lacking. The Liberty offers a unique sliding canvas roof as an option, which disgruntled consumers suggest is problematic. Each gets “below average” ratings from the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality and Reliability surveys and from Automotive Lease Guide for residual value.
Consumer Reports lists them among the lowest-scoring new-cars overall, with Intellichoice.com giving them poor grades for their relatively high ownership costs. And while these models get good ratings for frontimpact and roof-crush protection from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, they only get an acceptable rating for rear-impacts and a marginal score for sideimpact protection.
2. Chevrolet Colorado Canyon
Sales of small pickups like this duo from General Motors have fallen through the floor in recent years as buyers discovered they could obtain a full-size hauler with additional capabilities for not much more money. Fitted with either the standard four-cylinder engine or available fivecylinder powerplant the Colorado and Canyon are best for recreational use only. The trucks five-speed manual transmission is crude and the optional four-speed automatic is outdated. A is available, but its sheer overkill here and specifying it further narrows the price gap bsize models.
Both versions received below averageratings in the J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality and Reliability surveys and are projected to retain below average resale values according to Automotive Lease Guide. Crewcab model which were specifically tested by the Institute for Insurance Highway Safety, arned an acceptable rating for occupant protection in frontal collisions a marginal score for roof strength and rearend impacts and a poorranking for protection in side-impact collisions.
3. Nissan Armada
This behemoth sportutility vehicle feels every bit aslarge on the road as it looks and is an unruly handful in urban environments, with parallel parking being particularly challenging. The Armada is for the most part an automotive dinosaur with most SUV buyers having long migrated o more tractable carbased crossover models.
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