Consumer Reports Best and Worst Cars of 2015

mmcartalk

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BTW, this is purely subjective on my part, but if I had to make a list of the 10 Worst modern vehicles I've (mostly) reviewed or test-drove; the ones I've found least-impressive, I'd list these, in no particular order. These are either current vehicles or those produced within the last 20 years or so:

Smart-for Two.....Park-anywhere maneuverability, but a rolling coffin by American standards, a deplorably unrefined SMT transmission, and clearly not designed for most American roads.

Scion iQ.......similiar to the Smart, but with somewhat better build-quality/design and (slightly) better driving characteristics.

Ford Excursion..........simply atrocious driving/handling/braking conditions. At almost 7000 lbs. empty, it was simply too heavy for its chassis/underpinnings, and lacked the Suburban/Yukon/Expedition's composure

Mitsubishi Mirage......El Cheapo price, but unlike the competing Rio/Accent/Fiesta, you get what you pay for....if even that.

Chevrolet Spark......unlike its more impressive sand slightly bigger brother Sonic, the Spark is tiny, crude, awkward-looking, and has an interior trim level that would look cheap even in Bangladesh. :D

Nissan Juke.......although a decent small multi-purpose vehicle in terms of build-quality and road-manners, the body-styling should have been called Joke, not Juke.

Toyota Yaris...........well-built and reliable, but makes my refrigerator seem less appliance-like in comparison.

Buick Roadmaster.........cheap low-cost materials inside and out, and handled like the Excursion.....too heavy for its chassis/ suspension limits. The amount of body roll was simply alarming. (Interestingly, its Fleetwood/Caprice brothers seemed a little more composed on the road).

Lexus CT200h............(Yeah, I know....I might take some flak from Lexus fans on this one). Nice saint job and superb NuLuxe seat upholstery inside, but I found little else impressive about it. IMO it was too noisy, too unrefined, and rode too stiff for the Lexus nameplate, and should have been labelled a Toyota, though I do admit that it sold well under the Lexus badge.

Acura ZDX..........I was so disgusted with this vehicle at the D.C. Auto Show that I didn't even consider a formal review or test-drive, which, for me, is very uncommon. I simply walked away and forgot about it. :p
 
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mmcartalk

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Thanks. They scored the Jeep Wrangler a 20 which hasn't hurt sales one iota. They obviously don't get the charm of the vehicle.

From what I've read in CR and their views of the Wrangler, they do score it quite low as far as its paved-road-test and general review goes, but also acknowledge its continuing popularly with the off-road set. They understand its attractiveness to those who use it for what it was designed for....rock crawling. Other sources, BTW, also acknowledge that relationship. Most SUV owners use their vehicles essentially as all-weather station wagons (I don't like to use the term "soccer-mom", as it gets into stereotypes), with about 4 or 5% actually going off-road in the true sense of the term. With the Wrangler, though, the actual figures vary by poll, but are much higher......ranging from 25% to possibly as high as 50%. My own opinion (though not necessarily fact) is that we would probably see even higher percentages off-road use with the Wrangler if more insurance policies would cover off-road use (not all of of them do), and private land-owners and state/Federal parks allowed off-roading on their property.
 
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Och

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Wasn't it CR that caused Lexus to put a stop sale on GX due to supposed malfunction in the stability system, that could never be replicated in any other tests?
 

mmcartalk

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Wasn't it CR that caused Lexus to put a stop sale on GX due to supposed malfunction in the stability system, that could never be replicated in any other tests?

Yes, CR did do a story about that a few years ago. Even apart from its stability system, though, the GX is high and narrow compared to other American-market Lexus SUVs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's dangerous or overly-tipsy in the sense of the earlier Suzuki Samurai, Ford Bronco, Acura SLX/Isuzu Trooper, or Jeep CJ-5, especially if driven sensibly. CR, in their SUV roll-over tests, equips their vehicles with outriggers to prevent them from actually rolling over if they exceed body-roll limits or the stability system fails.

Also, keep in mind that while (most) stability systems CAN prevent roll-overs in some cases, they are primarily designed to compensate for yaw problems associated with oversteer or understeer, not necessarily body roll. The reason I say "most" is that Volvo was the first to use the special Roll-Control stability system for its SUVs that included sensors for body-lean as well as for yaw/steering-reponse. Those combination roll-control/stability systems were also used on some Ford SUVs when Ford owned Volvo.
 
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mikeavelli

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Wasn't it CR that caused Lexus to put a stop sale on GX due to supposed malfunction in the stability system, that could never be replicated in any other tests?

The other one that was just odd is CR gave the GS 300 (or 350, can't remember) AWD black marks for reliability. It was really strange since no AWD customers specifically complained about issues. But for whatever reason CR singled it out.
 
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mmcartalk

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The other one that was just odd is CR gave the GS 300 (or 350, can't remember) AWD black marks for reliability. It was really strange since no AWD customers specifically complained about issues. But for whatever reason CR singled it out.

FYI, it was actually the 3Gen GS300AWD, starting with the 2005/2006 redesign.

I reviewed and test-drove one back then, BTW, and was quite impressed with it. It seemed well-built, and drove with an excellent combination of luxury, refinement, and sport. I found little to complain about on it, except for the way they designed the little flip-down box on the left under-side of the dash that housed the power-mirror controls. It tended to continually bang one's left knee when down....especially a big meaty leg like mine. But, apparently, some kind of problem may (?) have developed on those cars as they aged.
 
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