Consumer Reports Names Best Used Cars For Every Budget

CR identifies Good Bets and Bad Bets to help guide used car buying decisions

YONKERS, N.Y., Feb. 28, 2007: Used cars often offer consumers the best values in the automotive market since new vehicles undergo a rapid depreciation in the first few years. Consumer Reports 2007 April Auto Issue features the lists of the best and worst used vehicles for 10 model years, 1997 through 2006.

Reliable vehicles and Vehicles to avoid include all models that showed above- or below-average overall reliability in CR's 2006 Annual Car Reliability Survey, which drew responses on about 1.3 million vehicles. CR has found that improved reliability has made used cars more appealing and insurance rates tend to be less expensive.

The Reliable vehicles list is categorized by price and features vehicles that are available from under $4,000 to $30,000 and up. For consumers on a budget, CR found 10 cars that they could purchase for under $4,000 including the 1998 Chevrolet Prizm and the 1997 Toyota Tercel.

CR Good Bets, which is derived from the Reliable vehicles list, features vehicles that have performed well in CR's road tests and have had several years of better-than-average reliability according to survey respondents. CR Good Bets includes vehicles from Acura, Buick, Chevrolet, Honda, Infiniti, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Nissan, Pontiac, Scion, Subaru, and Toyota. Below is the full list of models.

CR GOOD BETS

These models, listed alphabetically, have performed well in Consumer Reports road tests and have had several years of better-than-average reliability according to our survey respondents.

  Acura Integra      Honda Pilot      Lincoln Town Car   Toyota 4Runner
  Acura MDX          Honda Prelude    Mazda Millenia     Toyota Avalon
  Acura RL           Honda S2000      Mazda MX-5 Miata   Toyota Camry
  Acura RSX          Infiniti FX      Mazda Protege      Toyota Camry Solara
 (except '06)        Infiniti G20     Mazda3             Toyota Celica
  Acura TL           Infiniti G35     Nissan Altima      Toyota Corolla
  Acura TSX          Infiniti I30,I35 Nissan Maxima      Toyota Echo
  Buick Regal        Infiniti QX4     Nissan Pathfinder  Toyota Highlander
  Chevrolet Prizm    Lexus ES         Pontiac Vibe       Toyota Land Cruiser
  Honda Accord       Lexus GS         Scion xB           Toyota Matrix
  Honda Civic        Lexus GX         Subaru Forester    Toyota Prius
  Honda Civic Hybrid Lexus IS         Subaru Impreza     Toyota RAV4
  Honda CR-V         Lexus LS         Subaru Impreza WRX Toyota Sequoia
  Honda Element      Lexus RX         Subaru Legacy      Toyota Sienna
  Honda Odyssey      Lexus SC         Subaru Outback     Toyota Tundra

Vehicles that earned below-average Used Car Verdicts, meaning they proved worse or much worse than average earned a spot on the Vehicles to avoid list. Those which showed multiple Used Car Verdicts that were much worse than average were placed on the CR Bad Bets list. The models below from BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, GMC, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Volkswagen, and Volvo consistently had more problems than other models overall. Below is the full list of models.

CR BAD BETS

These vehicles showed multiple Used Car Verdicts that were much worse than average, according to our survey respondents. They consistently had more problems than other models overall.

  BMW 7 Series             Infiniti QX56              Oldsmobile Bravada
  BMW X5 (V8)              Jaguar S-Type              Oldsmobile Cutlas
  Chevrolet Astro          Jaguar X-Type              Oldsmobile Silhouette
  Chevrolet Blazer         Jeep Grand Cherokee        Pontiac Aztek
  Chevrolet Express        Kia Sedona (except '06)    Pontiac Trans Sport,
                                                       Montana,
  Chevrolet S-10 (4WD)     Land Rover Discovery, LR3   Montana SV6
  Chevrolet Venture,       Lincoln Aviator            Volkswagen Cabrio
   Uplander
  Chrysler Town & Country  Lincoln Navigator          Volkswagen Jetta
  (AWD)                                               (turbo, gas)
  Mercedes-Benz CLK        Volkswagen Jetta (V6)      Volkswagen New Beetle
                                                      (4-cyl.)
  Dodge Grand Caravan      Mercedes-Benz M-Class (V8) Volkswagen Touareg
  (AWD)
  GMC Jimmy                Mercedes-Benz S-Class (V8) Volvo XC90 (6-cyl.)
  GMC Sonoma (4WD)         Mercedes-Benz SL
  GMC Safari               Nissan Armada
  GMC Savana               Nissan Titan

For a full list of Reliable vehicles and Vehicles to avoid, check out the full report in Consumer Reports' Annual April Auto Issue on sale from March 6 through June 6. The Auto Issue is available wherever magazines are sold. Free highlights from the April Auto Issue, including the lists of CR Good Bets and CR Bad Bets, will be available at http://cars.consumerreports.org/.

Consumer Reports is one of the most trusted sources for information and advice on consumer products and services. It conducts the most comprehensive auto-test program of any U.S. publication or Web site; the magazine's auto experts have decades of experience in driving, testing, and reporting on cars. To subscribe to Consumer Reports, call 1-800-234-1645. Information and articles from the magazine can be accessed online at http://www.consumerreports.org/.

APRIL 2007