April 2008
Guide to CR Ratings
Here's a quick-reference guide to all of Consumer Reports' Ratings, from testing and safety scores to reliability and owner-satisfaction information. These ratings lists let you see how a model compares with its competitors in various attributes, so that you can more easily choose the right vehicle for you.
Recommended vehicles
To provide better guidance for car buyers, Consumer Reports offers consumers two tiers of recommended vehicles. To earn our first-tier recommendation
, vehicles must have performed well in CR's tests, have average or better reliability, and, if crash-tested, provide good overall crash protection based on our composite
of insurance-industry and government crash tests. Vehicles also must not have tipped up in the government rollover test.
To earn our more stringent, second-tier recommendation
, vehicles must meet all first-tier requirements, have been included in both the frontal-offset and side-crash tests conducted
by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and provide very good or excellent overall crash protection.
These lists show the ranking and overall scores of all vehicles that CR has recently tested. Vehicles are listed by category, so that you can easily see how they compare with competitive models.
Model overviews
Our guide to new-car Ratings and reviews help you interpret the information in our exclusive new-car profiles/model overviews.
CR's predicted reliability ratings indicate how the vehicles that are currently on sale are likely to hold up.
Best and worst used cars
This includes all of the models that showed either above-average or below-average reliability in our latest subscriber survey.
Reliability histories
These are detailed reliability ratings that show the individual strengths and weaknesses of 1998 through 2007 models. Separate ratings are provided for each model in 17 trouble areas, as well as an overall Reliability Verdict.
Owner satisfaction
These lists indicate how current owners feel about their vehicles, based on our latest subscriber survey. The Ratings show how many owners who said they would definitely buy the vehicle again.
Here's a quick-reference guide to all of Consumer Reports' Ratings, from testing and safety scores to reliability and owner-satisfaction information. These ratings lists let you see how a model compares with its competitors in various attributes, so that you can more easily choose the right vehicle for you.
Recommended vehicles
To provide better guidance for car buyers, Consumer Reports offers consumers two tiers of recommended vehicles. To earn our first-tier recommendation
, vehicles must have performed well in CR's tests, have average or better reliability, and, if crash-tested, provide good overall crash protection based on our composite
of insurance-industry and government crash tests. Vehicles also must not have tipped up in the government rollover test.To earn our more stringent, second-tier recommendation
, vehicles must meet all first-tier requirements, have been included in both the frontal-offset and side-crash tests conducted
by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and provide very good or excellent overall crash protection.These lists show the ranking and overall scores of all vehicles that CR has recently tested. Vehicles are listed by category, so that you can easily see how they compare with competitive models.
Model overviews
Our guide to new-car Ratings and reviews help you interpret the information in our exclusive new-car profiles/model overviews.
CR's predicted reliability ratings indicate how the vehicles that are currently on sale are likely to hold up.
Best and worst used cars
This includes all of the models that showed either above-average or below-average reliability in our latest subscriber survey.
Reliability histories
These are detailed reliability ratings that show the individual strengths and weaknesses of 1998 through 2007 models. Separate ratings are provided for each model in 17 trouble areas, as well as an overall Reliability Verdict.
Owner satisfaction
These lists indicate how current owners feel about their vehicles, based on our latest subscriber survey. The Ratings show how many owners who said they would definitely buy the vehicle again.
