2010 Prius is Consumer Reports Top Pick as "Green car"

Consumer Reports picks the 2010 Prius as top pick as a "Green Car."

Article says:

Going through the entire list of ten, they note that a Toyota product would have won in a couple of other categories were it not for the suspended production.

To see the entire list, go to:
10 best cars: Consumer Reports - Best overall: Lexus 460L (1) - CNNMoney.com

 

Bob Wilson
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While I can't say that it really or always worked that way in practice, Ford had an interesting approach, which was to maintain a test fleet from whom it could gather the "noise" and serious problems, etc -- and to do it while negating lack of maintainance as an issue.

If a front wheel bearing was a problem in a new model year for a vehicle, it would be seen in the test fleet, and the numbers extrapolated to the number out there with customers.

The "test fleet" worked this way. Ford had a "management lease car" program available to salaried employees at or above a specific salary grade, a group numbered into the many thousands. The employee could lease, for one year, the vehicle (usually) of their choosing at a rate which was no where near the cost of leasing on the outside. The employee's payment also covered maintenance -- in company garages when available -- insurance, license plates, tax, whatever. At the beginning of each model year, the employee would turn in the old car and lease a car from that new model year. You couldn't touch this cost of use outside the program.

Now, management level employees saw this as a perk above all else, and indeed it was a perk. The lease rates were so good that Ford occasionally had to fight with the IRS over whether imputed income should be attributed to employees because the lease was so low.

However, what Ford now had was a new model year test fleet, always correctly maintained, because they were then serviced mainly in company garages.

• First, if there was a problem with a given vehicle, Ford stood able to see that from the compiled data from the mgt lease vehicles -- and the cars would come in, and problems be reported, as maintainance was free. This data was, I was told by a safety engineer, available more quickly than dealer data which wouldn't be categorized as well. Dealers reported warranty issues, but generally not the mundane repairs etc.
• Second, the larger garages (eg, near Ford's concentration of salaried employees in Dearborn MI) also could keep track of more vague complaints -- the "noise" -- and alert engineering & warranty to it.
• Third, employees filled out a survey about the car twice during its lease period.

How often and well Ford exploited all the possibilities of this test fleet, I cannot say. I do know that on occasion they would "call in" a bunch of a given type of car so they could check out a complaint or problem. They occasionally would also conduct a telephone survey of those leasing a particular vehicle if they suspected an issue with it.