If you want to lose some weight, get rid of your spare tire. No not your abdominal fat: the emergency spare in the back of your car. Our car-buying colleagues down the highway at the Consumer Reports auto testing center note that many new vehicles lack spare tires. Why? To save weight and thus fuel, and because nobody knows how to change them anymore, anyway. [More]
consumer reports cars
Should You Take Back That GPS You Got For Christmas?
By 12.27.12
You might have ripped the wrapping paper off a shiny new GPS unit earlier this week, but should you keep it? A well-meaning loved one might have bought you a new one this week, but that doesn’t mean that they chose the best one for your needs or that you should keep it. How do you know whether the unit you have is the best for you? If only there were an entity out there that tested different models side-by-side and published the results…Oh, right, that would be our elder sister publication, Consumer Reports! [More]
Testing Stuck Accelerator Survival Strategies
By 10.17.09
The recent recall of millions of Toyotas due to their floor mats’ unfortunate tendency to trap the cars’ accelerators, a flaw which has caused at least one confirmed horrific fatal accident, has caused people to wonder: if this happened to me, what would I do? Equipped with several different makes of cars and a test track, our colleagues at Consumer Reports Cars decided to play Mythbusters and put different stuck-accelerator survival strategies to the test.
Share Your Car Battery Disasters With Consumer Reports
By 8.19.09
Our recent Zipcar electrical failure trilogy reminded us of a request from Consumer Reports Cars last week. For the November issue, they’re looking for your stories of car battery failure, epic and otherwise. Do you have one to share?
