Drive Over to Consumer Reports Before Buying New Family Car

Because we are expecting our second child in a few months and because my 1991 Acura Integra with 160,000 miles leaks water through my sunroof every time it rains, it’s time for us to buy a new car.

Although my wife and I like small – our other car is a 2000 Toyota Echo – we decided it was time to get something bigger this time around for safety, interior space and convenience reasons. That’s why we’re probably going to buy a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna minivan.

Sure, the vehicles are boring, but as I wrote in August, they are the ultimate family vehicle. I can go back to my affordable sports car paradigm when I’m in my 60s or 70s.

Considering our new needs, here are my criteria for picking out a car:

1. Reliability and safety – Even though it’s only happened to me once or twice, I hate having my car towed from the middle of nowhere or getting stuck in the middle of I-10. I also want the car to last forever to minimize the amount of hard-earned money spent on them. And of course, with little kids riding along and big trucks towering over our little Echo, safety has become a much greater concern. Minivans, by the way, are considered the safest vehicles on the road.
2. Functionality – My two cars before the Echo were hatchbacks because I could fold back the seats and put things like my bikes in the back. But now we need a vehicle good for long trips to visit grandma and camping expeditions. The minivan has good storage space, adjustable seats, big roof racks and other amenities that don’t exist on most cars and even some SUVs.
3. Price – This category is probably 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, but since I only have a set amount of cash anyway, there’s not a lot of room for discussion. By the way, I include gas mileage and repair needs in this category, because that’s part of the overall costs of owning and operating a car. If you divide out the purchase price of my Integra by the number of years I’ve had it, I’ve paid just over $1,000 a year on the car. I spent about another $400 a year on repair costs. My biggest fear concerning the minivan price tag is the relatively low gas mileage, which is a third less fuel efficient than my Acura.
4. Styling, performance and appearance – Sure, I would love to drive the coolest roadster made, but as I mentioned above, how long the vehicle lasts and how reliable it is are far more important.

All of this brings us to the April Consumer Reports, which they call the Best 2005 Cars issue. Not surprisingly, the first thing I look at is top picks and reliability index. Since most of the Consumer Reports’ website is behind a subscription firewall, you might want to buy the magazine, which goes on stands soon. Or you can look up stories on CNN the Los Angeles Times or other sites.

Although this year’s report confirms our minivan choice, it’s interesting to note that the Subaru company received the top spot for quality for the first time, reports the Times. We were steered away from Subaru from a friend who complained about problems as the car aged, but it sounds like the company has made great strides in recent years.

Of course, as parents you’ll have to come to your own conclusions about what is the best vehicle for you family, so below I’ve listed some rankings among various categories:

Top Models Overall from 10 Categories

Category // Model
Small sedan // Ford Focus
Upscale sedan // Acura TL
Luxury Sedan // Lexus LS430
Small SUV // Subaru Forester
Midsized SUV // Lexus RX330
Three-row SUV // Honda Pilot
Minivan // Honda Odyssey
Green car // Toyota Prius
Family sedan // Honda Accord
Fun to drive // Subaru Impreza WRX

Vehicles Expected to Be Most Reliable in 2005

Small Cars
Toyota Echo
Toyota Corolla
Scion xB

Hybrids
Toyota Prius
Honda Civic Hybrid

Sedans
Lexus IS300
Toyota Camry (4-cylinder)
Lexus LS430

SUVs
Mitsubishi Endeavor
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Highlander

Pickup Trucks
Toyota Tundra

Comments

[andy]

"Safety" is a kind of interesting idea. Really, no vehicle is any safer than any other. When manufacturers try to sell the "safety" of a vehicle, they are always citing how much damage is done to the vehicle, and sometimes how much is done to the people inside. Their math is a bit questionable at times, as well. I've seen some independent reports that show that mini-vans as a whole are more likely to be involved in an injurious accident. But the fact that they are minivans has nothing to do with it.

The truly safest vehicles are those driven by safe drivers. Safe drivers (especially those who have taken defensive driving courses), driving smaller and more agile vehicles are less likely to ever get in an accident to begin with. The argument that you can never really prepare for everything out there is often made. In commercial driving, however, they use a different set of standards when it comes to the "fault" of an accident. Rather than just going with what a police report says, most companies that center around commercial driving (trucking companies, taxi companies, etc), have their own investigators who assess any accidents in a far more revealing way. They ask from the start, what their driver could have done to avoid the accident all together. Did the driver need to be driving in that location? Was the driver tired? Was the radio on? There a million factors that can go into an accident. Some are big, and some minute. The idea, however, is to train yourself to all-out avoid unnecessary circumstances. The fact that it's "the other guys fault" isn't much consolation if you or your children are laid up in a hospital bed or worse.

I don't know much about the vehicles you mentioned, but my response is to recommend that you check out their breaking abilities and turn ratios.

There is an excellent article on why we think vehicles are safe when they really are not at http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

Although it's kind of SUV centered, it examines the psychology that goes into determining safety, and really has some very revealing statistics.

[brettdl]

Thanks Andy for the interesting insight. I'll have to read the article when I get back from a couple days off.

I agree that driving a smaller car is safer in terms of avoiding an accident. I much prefer driving them -- I like their quick maneuverability -- but there are other issues that make me want to go to a bigger vehicle.

For example, the Echo is so small and there are so many SUVs on the road that I could lose my entire family in one accident. I drive some of the busiest freeways in the world every day, and about once a month I get passed by someone driving so recklessly and so fast that even the best driver would have trouble avoiding disaster.

I also see 1 or 2 updside down cars a month. They are of all makes, big and small, though I see SUVs most. I've never seen an overturned mini van to date, though I'm sure it happens. Still, I do believe the data that says they're safer than most SUVs.

When a pickup truck pulled out in front of my Acura, which was moving at 35 miles per hour, I T-boned the guy. His truck was so high I watched as his passenger door moved closer and closer to my face. If I'd been doing 45 and hit him, I would have been decapitated.

Although I consider myself an alert driver, I'm pretty sure that there was little I could have done to avoid this one. He flew out of a blind spot and left me less than a second to react.

Once my kids are grown and out of the house, maybe I'll feel more comfortable with a smaller car. Or maybe if I can find a way out of the big city and I'm not surrounded by maniacs and Hummers. In the meantime, I perfer to delude myself that the larger minivan will provide a small measure of extra protection for my wife and kids.

[Cara Fletcher]

It's good you have made a list what are you looking for.This is very important when buying new car.And this way you wouldn't depend on the advisors in the store.