If Consumer Reports' auto editors cared about our environment, every car on their annual Top 10 list would be a hybrid or EV

COVER STORY OR COVER UP? Consumer Reports' annual Auto Issue lists only 4 gas-electric hybrids or electric cars among its Top 10 vehicles for 2022.

 

Gas hits average of $4.32 a gallon

as tailpipe emissions are killing

53,000 Americans every year

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Consumer Reports boasts about a full-time auto testing staff of "about 30" who "work to deliver exclusive insights to our members," but none of them claim to be environmentalists.

And for yet another year, the non-profit's Top 10 list in its annual Auto Issue ignores the premature deaths of 53,000 people every year from tailpipe emissions, as measured by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That compares to 34,000 a year who die in traffic accidents (based on a 2013 MIT study).

Two Toyota gas-electric hybrids, a Lexus hybrid, a Honda Accord hybrid and Ford's Mustang Mach-E -- an electric vehicle -- are the only low or zero emissions entries on CR's Top 10 list for 2022.

It's a Top 10 list, but a total of 13 vehicles are listed for some reason in the April 2022 issue of the magazine.

Safety first

"Our ratings now reward automakers that install driver monitoring systems in their cars," Marta L. Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports, says in her monthly column.

Tellado makes no mention of auto tailpipe emissions and their role in global warming or impact on life expectancy.

'Green Choice'

Just last year, Consumer Reports started designating some vehicles as "our Green Choice" -- the top 20 percent of vehicles on the market with the cleanest emissions.

Unfortunately, the "Green Choice" designation came more than 20 years after the first gas-electric hybrid or green cars went on sale in the United States.

And being "clean" or "cleaner" doesn't come close to earning a vehicle a spot on the annual Top 10 list.

NO TESLAS IN SIGHT: Even though Tesla has been the best selling electric car in the United States since 2012, none are listed on Consumer Reports' Top 10 list for 2022.

Top 10 Picks

The Top 10 list in the annual Auto Issue includes a midsize SUV, Kia's Telluride, that gets 21 mpg; and a compact pickup truck, the Honda Ridgeline, which is rated at 20 mpg -- less than half the mileage of most gas-electric hybrids. 

But instead of the Honda, the so-called auto experts at the magazine should have chosen the 2022 Ford F-150 hybrid pickup truck, which is rated at 25 mpg city/highway.

And is the Kia Telluride so special that it eclipses all of the midsize SUVs with hybrid power and lower emissions sold by competitors?

Gas hits $4.32 a gallon

This year, the Top 10 list includes a total of 13 vehicles: 

Both the Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid, and the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid with an electric range of 25 miles, are listed.

Consumer Reports also lists the Honda Accord and Accord Hybrid as well as the Lexus RX and Lexus RX Hybrid.

The Top 10 list could have done without the gasoline versions of the Honda and Lexus. 

In fact, a Top 10 list of only gas-electric hybrids and EVs makes even more sense as the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States hit $4.32 this week.

Deadly air pollution

All in all, Consumer Reports' annual Auto Issue continues to disappoint, and ignore the elephant in the room:

Premature deaths from air pollution caused by vehicle tailpipe emissions.

READ: First EV on Top 10 list

 didn't appear until 2018

Consumer Reports trashes Tesla, Model 3, other EVs; and a new reason to hate SUVs

The Subaru Ascent SUV leads Consumer Report's list of Top 10 vehicles in 2019, even though a competing model, the Toyota Highlander, is more friendly to the environment. The Highlander, available with a gas-electric drivetrain, gets better mileage.

Environmental impact of cars 

missing in magazine's 2019 Auto Issue

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Consumer Reports' 2019 Auto Issue completely ignores the environmental impact of the 260 new vehicles that are rated and reviewed, just like the first such issue in 1948.

Not a single all-electric, zero-emissions vehicle makes the magazine's "10 Top Picks" this year, although the list includes three gas-electric hybrids from Toyota.

Topping the Top 10 is the 22-mpg Subaru Ascent, a 3-row midsize SUV, even though the Japanese automaker's Crosstrek is available as a plug-in gas-electric hybrid that gets far better gas mileage.

Shocking omission

Given climate change, global warming or whatever you want to call the heating up of the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, the refusal of the magazine's testers to give vehicles an environmental grade is shocking.

When he unveiled the Model 3 in March 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he hoped the mainstream sedan would accelerate the transition to "sustainable transportation."

And he noted electric vehicles are more important than ever in view of 58,000 premature deaths every year in the United States from tailpipe emissions.

The automotive media, including Consumer Reports (CR), ignored him then just as they are doing know.

Tesla and other automakers should get points for the number of zero-emissions and gas-electric hybrids in their lineup, just as CR knocks itself out praising them for "impressive fuel economy" (19 mpg in the Ford F-150, for example).

Instead, in a March 15 report sent to readers, CR asks, "As Tesla unveils Model Y crossover, should consumers buy into drama-filled company?"

The piece was by Jeff Plungis, identified as CR's lead "automotive investigative reporter."

2019 Auto Issue

In a section on "How the Brands Stack Up" (defined as companies offering "consumers strong-performing and problem-free vehicles") EV maker Tesla dropped 11 places to 19th among 33 brands (behind Buick, but ahead of Ford, Nissan and Chrysler).

On the "Best + Worst Lists," Tesla's Model 3 is "no longer recommended" because of "declining reliability," along with the Acura RDX, Chrysler 300, BMW 5 series, Dodge Charger and Volkswagen Tiguan.

The Model 3 problems described by readers were cosmetic, and don't affect its high safety rating.

No category for EVs

In another section, "New Car Ratings," EVs do not appear in their own categories.

Under "Cars: Compact Electric and Hybrids," two Toyota gas-electric hybrids are rated higher than the Chevrolet Bolt EV Premier, and the Honda Insight EX is tied with the Bolt.

That's bewildering in view of the improved Bolt -- a fast, quiet, tight four-door hatchback you can drive with one pedal: 

Lift off the gas and the battery electric car comes to a stop at a crosswalk, stop sign or traffic light.

And CR dropped the Bolt from its Top 10 list this year.

Teslas finish 4th

Tesla's Model 3 is listed 4th among "Cars: Luxury Compact" after the Acura TLX, Infiniti Q50 and Kia Stinger.

The Tesla Model S -- the first car to achieve an overall score of 100 points from CR -- also finished 4th among "Cars: Ultraluxury." 

Ahead of the Model S were three gas-thirsty cars the Tesla outsells by far: 

Mercedes-Benz S550, BMW 750i (xDrive) and Genesis G90.

Electric Jag?

I could not find any mention in the 2019 Auto Issue of the all-electric 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, which is being advertised on TV in the New York-New Jersey area.

Subaru's Crosstrek, a plug-in hybrid, merits only a few words under "New Car Profiles."

The section on "New Cars Worth Waiting For" lists only 8 vehicles, including 6 gas-guzzling SUVs, 1 sedan and 1 sports car.

Among the 6 so-called sport utility vehicles is the monstrous Lincoln Aviator, to be available with 400- and 450-horsepower engines.

That abomination from Lincoln flunks every environmental test.

Read: Years late, CR puts an EV on Top 10 list

The Toyota Supra, above, a 2-seater that will go on sale this summer, is being built in partnership with BMW and is based on the German automaker's Z4 roadster, according to Consumer Reports' April 2019 Auto Issue.

SUVs are deadlier

Consumer Reports continues to ignore the menace of big SUVs, which use more gasoline and pollute more than other vehicles, and make traffic congestion worse because they take up so much more space than other vehicles.

Not to mention how aggressively they are driven.

Yet, in a section of the 2019 Auto Issue called "Making the World Safer for Pedestrians," the magazine notes "the unforgiving structure of SUVs, when compared with the lower profile of cars, is adding to the [pedestrian] death toll," according to research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"Higher-riding SUVs and other light trucks -- which now account for almost 70 percent of U.S. vehicle sales, up from nearly 50 percent a decade ago -- mean that pedestrians are more likely to be hit in the abdomen or head than at the legs, which leads to more serious injuries and fatalities."

CR says vehicles with pedestrian-detection systems and automatic emergency braking are one way to slow the rising number of pedestrians killed in the past decade.

The magazine said  that in 2017, 5,977 pedestrians were fatally hit by vehicles -- a 45 percent increase from 4,109 such deaths in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

So, it's hard to understand how CR can then turn around and recommend any SUV to readers, who could find as much room, all-wheel drive and even a hybrid drivetrain in a minivan.