garys@houxm.UUCP (#G.SEUBERT) (04/19/84)
The April '84 Auto Buying Issue of Consumer Reports offers (as always) great tips on new and used car purchases. They also offer a service of sending you a computer printout for a particular model domestic car with the invoice (dealer cost) and sticker prices for the base car and EVERY conceivable option. The fee is $9 for one car, $17 for two, etc. I obtained printouts for the 2-door Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and the Buick Regal Limited and they are quite nice but here's what they used to give you for free: Sticker Price of base car x .863 = Dealer's cost Sitcker Price of option x .85 = Dealer's cost Both printouts followed the above formulas to the $ and I assume they would hold for other Domestic models and manufacturers. Their suggestion is: "If you can't find a (Domestic) Dealer willing to sell for $50 - $400 over invoice price, keep shopping" Gary Seubert ..!ihnp4!houxm!garys P.S. I didn't pick either car!
emma@uw-june.UUCP (04/20/84)
I've been seeing enough about Consumer Reports recently that I think I'd better say something. We had a discussion about that magazine in this forum about a year ago. The most important thing to recognize is that they know nothing about cars. Remember they once declared the Omni "Unacceptable" because when driving at 50 mph, turning the wheel hard over, and releasing it, the car didn't recover by itself. They once ran a comparison test between a Toyota Celica, a Dodge Charger, a Ford Mustang, and a Chevy Camaro. Since the Dodge had a 4, they tried to make the test fair by running the 4-cylinder engines in the Ford (not the turbo 4) and the Chevy. Their repair ratings, which I referred to then as the only trustworthy information in the magazine, were mentioned by another netter as something else they get wrong. Seems they only count repair incidence, not cost to repair. So a turn signal lens that falls off counts as much as a transmission rebuild (note that for a while, they were factoring with cost. They've cut that out). At that time, I summarized by saying that I might use them to buy a toaster, but never an automobile. One of the responses I got then was from a person who had complaints about their toaster evaluations. -Joe P.
garys@houxm.UUCP (#G.SEUBERT) (04/23/84)
> Their repair ratings, which I referred to then as the only trustworthy > information in the magazine, were mentioned by another netter as > something else they get wrong. Seems they only count repair incidence, > not cost to repair. So a turn signal lens that falls off counts as > much as a transmission rebuild (note that for a while, they were > factoring with cost. They've cut that out). I'm looking at the Frequency-of-Repair records section of the April issue of Consumers and MY COPY has separate ratings for types of troubles and the relative 'cost index' of how much repairs on a particular car run above or below the average for other models of the same year. I'm not defending them to the hilt (I've been burned with toasters too) but I think that making it possible for a buyer to walk into a car dealership knowing EXACTLY how much the salesman is lying through his teeth when he says "believe me - we're only making $50 and that has to pay our phone bill" earns Consumer Reports some credit for helping us out. Gary Seubert - ..!ihnp4!houxm!garys