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Detroit Fuming Over Consumer Reports Top Ten Picks

March 8, 2006

• GMAC Changing Name to Ally Bank • New Car Sales Show Improvement From May • April Dismal For U.S. And Foreign Carmakers • Chrysler Files for Bankruptcy, GMAC Takes Over Financing • Auto Sales Stagnant, But Hope Appears • What Would a Chrysler Bankruptcy Mean For You? • U.S. Carmakers Getting More Federal Aid • GM Cuts More Jobs, Eyes China • New Car Sales Plunge in February • Car Buyers Seeking Higher Fuel Economy • Video: Do Women Really Hate Car Shopping? • GM Plans New Minicar, Electric Cadillac • GMAC Becomes a Bank • White House to Loan Carmakers $17.4 Billion • Chrysler Closing Car Plants for 30 Days • What Would a Washington-Designed Car Industry Look Like? • States Want Stronger Used Car Rule • Industry Troubles Cloud LA Car Show • Carmakers Get Neither Love Nor Money From Congress • Taxpayers Headed For Automotive Bailout • Time May Be Running Short for U.S. Carmakers • Feds Move Closer to Carmaker Bailout • New-Vehicle Buyers Turn to the Web in Record Numbers --- • More about Auto Sales ...

This year's Consumer Reports top ten list of vehicles named only Japanese automakers, leaving Detroit out in the cold for the first time since 1997 when the list began.

Detroit auto executives were a little hot -- if not burning -- and have fired back at the consumer magazine.

Lori Queen, who is a General Motors executive involved in small car production told the Automotive News in an e-mail that the editors and reporters who put together the Consumer Reports auto issue are "the most unprofessional group of people I have ever worked with."

"They are totally nonobjective and go to great extremes to paint a picture for their paid subscription readers, who primarily buy Japanese cars. They don't consider price or price differences, they don't consider model mix or consumer preferences, they buy the cheapest car they can find and then base all their opinions on a limited sample," Queen told the automotive magazine.

For the record, the Consumer Reports top ten included the Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Acura TL, Infiniti M35, Subaru Forester, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Honda Ridgeline, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Prius and Subaru Impreza WRX/STi.

No wonder Detroit was fuming. But Consumer Reports promises the vehicles were selected because of performance, versatility, reliability, safety and interior fit and finish.

No politics here, the organization insists.

"Our findings are driven first, foremost and exclusively by a commitment to providing consumers with expert, independent, test-based and survey-based information," said Jim Guest president of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

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