Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Consumer Reports' best used, fuel-efficent vehicles

2005 Toyota Echo
The most polarizing magazine on the planet Everyone's favorite magazine, Consumer Reports, has released a list of the most reliable, fuel-efficient cars you can buy used. Among those cars, two subcompacts rated No. 1 and No. 3: The 2005 Toyota Echo and 2005 Scion xB, respectively.

The complete list looks like this:

1. 2005 Toyota Echo - 31 mpg
2. 2006 Honda Civic - 30 mpg
3. 2005 Scion xB - 29 mpg
4. 2007 Toyota Corolla - 29 mpg
5. 2006 Toyota Corolla - 29 mpg
6. 2005 Toyota Matrix - 27 mpg
7. 2007 Pontiac Vibe - 27 mpg
8. 2006 Mazda 3 - 26 mpg
9. 2003 Mazda Protege - 24 mpg
10. 2004 Subaru Impreza - 22 mpg

Now, I'm not 100% sure what their criteria was for choosing these cars. I would've figured the 2007 Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris would've been on the list, too. However, they are not; perhaps their pricing remains too high. And although the Impreza is a good car, how did it make the list with 22 mpg? Was there requirement for an AWD vehicle to be on the list? Ah, the black magic that is Consumer Reports ...

LINKS
Which of Consumer Reports' picks for best used cars gets the best mileage? (Yahoo! Green)
Consumer Reports

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lol, that list is so skewed. I also wonder what their criteria was for making this list. Looks like they had serious requirements, that's why some obvious cars are left out.

D2M said...

My guess is it's got to do with safety figures. Do all those cars come with stability control? Because that's something that CR pushes a lot and tends to really look down on vehicles that don't have it available by default or an easy add on.