Consumer Reports has released its "Top 10" Best Cars for 2008 in its annual auto issue that is about to hit the newstands. Here's the scoop...
The "Top 10" list is their ranking of the top vehicles in ten categories and for the last two years Japan has owned the list. This year, GM and Hyundia broke out from the pack.
GM? 'bout time. It's been 5 years since an American make showed up on the list and this is the first year any Korean manufacturer has made the highly touted "best" list.
And Hyundai? ya gotta be kiddin' me. Well, maybe not.
The Hyundai Elantra SE ranked the top small sedan and the Hyundai Sante Fe was the top midsize SUV. Hyundai has come a long way, baby. Gone are the days when their cars actually looked like what Americans thought a Korean car would look like --- and ran (or didn't) like it too. Now, if you took the badges off, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Hyundai and the average-looking American-made car.
After a few blistering years of bad press, Hyundai got smart. They hired designers who knew what Americans wanted their cars to look like. Then they hired engineers and factory workers who apparently built them right, too. They've come a long way and deserve credit for getting here.
And GM? Their long-lasting marquee Chevrolet Silverado led the pickup truck category (how 'bout that Ford?). It was the first time since 2005 that a US truck was the leader of the pack. Apparently Ford has quantity with its F series, but Chevy's got the quality. That's pretty close to what we see here at
UsLemonLawyers.com too.
With all the F series trucks from Ford, you'd think their quality would be tops, but that just isn't what our lemon lawsuits show. For years now, we've had more Ford F series lemon truck cases than any other brand or make.
Still,
Consumer Reports says that Japanese makes still dominate the ratings for performance, safety and reliability. Top picks:
Best luxury sedan: Lexus LS 460L
Best gas/electric "green car" is Toyota Prius
Best Minivan: Toyota Sienna
Best Small SUV: Toyota RAV4
Best family sedan: Honda Accord
Best upscale sedan: Nissan Infiniti G35
Best "fun to drive" car: Mazda MX-5 Miata
Those rankings ring true here too. We've never had a lemon Miata case, only one Prius lemon, very few Lexus lemons, only one or two lemon RAVs, a couple of Infiniti lemons but a small number of lemon Accord cars.
Ford and Chrysler apparently have made progress but still can't break into the Consumer Reports "best" rankings consistently or frequently, and GM is only sometimes getting out there.
The Consumer Reports ranking give us just one reactikon: come on, Detroit, figure it out and fix it.
Meanwhile, if you've got a lemon Ford F pickup truck or any other kind of lemon car or lemon truck or lemon rv or lemon suv or lemon motorcycle or lemon ATV or lemon boat or lemon motorhome,
email us or call us at 1-888-331-6422 Toll Free.
Helping consumers get rid of lemon vehicles is what we do. Every day.
Burdge Law Office
Because life is too short to put up with a bad vehicle.