Hi, We traded our 2017 Prius Prime for a 2019 Standard Range Plus Model 3. A unique opportunity, we are very happy and remain happy with both cars. However, Consumer Reports had this: Prius Prime - got a higher score even though it has 4-5 generations of improvements yet less payload. Model 3 - got a lower score, a first model year, that Consumer Reports has often cited as the worst car to get. Measured specifications: Range of Model 3 is cited but not the Prius Prime Cost per mile is not cited for either car I do not regret trading in our 2014 Prius Prime for a 2019 Model 3. Let me share, we have done some trips of: 1200 mi - Prius Prime, $55, ~20 hrs 2 x +700 mi each way - trips to Kansas and Texas, ~$30 each way, ~18 hrs 500 mi round trip - Tunica MS I'm not throwing stones at Consumer Reports because they are in an earlier age, 5-10 years earlier. Rather, they have done the best they are able. About three editorial boards earlier, Consumer Reports had a Prius review problem. Perhaps Tesla has replaced their earlier bias ... or they laid off the *ssholes. Bob Wilson
Consumer Reports does an objective, independent and thorough review of cars. They allow for the subjective and objective in their reviews and they diligently seek to push the auto industry to higher safety standards. I am certain Tesla and others have benefited from their testing. They are certainly not behind the times- but quite the opposite. Their overall ratings are intended for comparison between similar car types. And the relative weight they give to reliability, safety, ease of use, fuel economy, comfort, etc., may be somewhat subjective. And quite frankly, I can't see how this could not be the case. For example, you may put a premium on fuel economy and advanced safety tech. Someone else may focus on reliability. Another may seek comfort and quiet above all. Further, in a few cases a car may be "more" than the sum of its parts. It may have significant tradeoffs, but a compelling ride. 0-60 times, stopping distances, emergency handling, braking distance, road noise, etc. are not subjective. Repair frequency isn't either, but the weighting of less or more serious repairs is. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
Consumer Reports should stick to rating appliances and household supplies. Quite clearly their automotive ratings are erratic, arbitrary, and at times even self-contradictory. The problem is that CR tries to rate everything; their coverage is broad, but quite shallow. They simply don't have the resources or the staff to cover any large field of complex products in depth. I've noticed the same problem with audiophile-grade sound equipment. CR's ratings are fine if all you want to know is how long the system will last, but don't look to CR for such things as sound fidelity, dynamic range, or anything else that separates audiophile grade sound equipment from something you can buy at Walmart or Best Buy. If you want solid, well-informed ratings for automobiles, I suggest trying Edmunds.com. Even worse, it certainly looks like CR is deliberately flip-flopping on its ratings for Tesla cars, in order to give them an excuse to splash "TESLA" across their magazine covers and their website headlines, to drive up magazine sales and/or clicks on their website. First CR will do a review bashing a Tesla car, then a few months later they will "revise" their rating, giving them an excuse to run another article on the exact same model of car in the same year. If we need evidence of how erratic and even self-contradictory CR's ratings of Tesla cars are, we need only look at the graphic below, a summary chart for CR's ratings for various model years for the Tesla Model S P85D. Note that for the 2015 model year, all the categories rated have ratings between "Excellent" and "Fair", with only one single category rated "Fair" and everything else rated better. Yet CR's overall rating for the car is "Poor"! How is that even possible? In fact, looking at all the ratings shown below, none of them seems to be a fair reflection of what's shown for ratings in the individual categories rated. And it's not just Tesla cars, either. I've seen similar complaints over on the Honda Clarity PHEV section of this forum, complaints that CR's ratings of that car don't match actual driver experiences.
