For the second year running, the Toyota Prius has been named as the ‘Best New Car Value’ winner from Consumer Reports.
The list, released at the end of each year, looks at some 200 new vehicles that are currently on sale, taking into account their past and predicted reliability ratings, road test scores by Consumer Reports‘ own testing and predicted ownership costs over five years. Essentially, better value is awarded the higher the car performs during the testing process, the higher it scores in terms of reliability and the less it costs to own.
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At the end of the day, the Prius costs more than some of its competitors, but it scored top marks for its high fuel economy rating (44 mpg, based on CR’s own testing) and past reliability ratings. After crunching the numbers, CR found the Prius would cost about 47 cents per mile to run. Broken down by class, here are the rest of CR’s ‘best value’ winners, including the Honda Ridgeline, the Mazda Miata and the Subaru Legacy.
In additon to the Best Value ratings, Consumer Reports also determines vehicles with the worst. This year, the Nissan Armada topped the latter list. Based on CR’s findings, it costs $1.20 per mile to run and lost points for its high base price, cheap interior and low fuel economy numbers. The rest of the cars on CR’s worst value list include the Volkswagen Beetle, the Nissan Altima and the Ford Escape with the 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine
