2008 SEMA Show: The tire industry feels the pinch of a soured economy

Where else can you see nearly every major tire manufacturer under one roof, but at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas? This year, like the previous 12 years, the CR tire team went to the show and visited with the tire manufacturers, discussing current and new tire models we’re thinking about testing. The next program, by the way, will cover regular all-season and winter tires for cars -- due out in November 2009.

Every year at SEMA there seems to be a particular theme that we pick up on, and this year it was how companies were dealing with the poor economy. Some major tire manufacturers, including Bridgestone, Goodyear, Kumho, and Michelin, were no-shows. Even some companies that were present were only there because they already paid for the expensive booth space at the show. But the omission of these larger tire manufacturers gave the spotlight to smaller and well-respected companies like Cooper, Dunlop, Falken, Hankook, Nitto, and Toyo to name a few. It also allowed for some newcomers like Maxxis and Nankang to get some attention as well.

In other areas, the annual craze of larger wheels (and tires to fit them) has seemed to run its course, and bling seems as old as some of the muscle cars that were on display. Ridiculously large-diameter wheels and tires are extremely expensive for common folks to buy and not many vehicles can accept some of the outrageous plus-size tires and wheels. The Hummer H2 is among the few vehicles that can handle such hardware, but it too seems out of place in this new era of widely fluctuating gas prices and energy consciousness.

One trend that may grow is the development of ecology-friendly tires. These are developed from the ground up, optimized for ultra-low rolling resistance and are designed to save money at the gas pump, as well as incorporating environmentally friendly manufacturing processes and materials. Hankook is touting development of its enfren tire line which it says can improve fuel economy by 2 percent. Yokohama also showed the dB Super E-spec, a tire that saves fuel and is made with some natural materials in lieu of petroleum-based products. Even Cooper took the wraps off its first low rolling resistance tire called GFE (Greater Fuel Efficiency). Don’t rush out to buy any of these tires just yet. Some or all will likely find there way to the market place in limited sizes to fit hybrid vehicles. We’ll be watching this segment closely.

We also noted how anxious tire companies were about how the state of California and the federal government will proceed with their attempts to grade tires for rolling resistance. Government agencies are moving ahead with programs to provide consumer information on tire efficiency. Tire makers warn that low rolling resistance is a worthy consideration when shopping for a new tire, but they warn that consumers need to understand some of the key trade-offs, notably in lower wet grip and tread-life.

Finally, a truly revolutionary airless tire and wheel system was shown at the Cooper exhibit. Cooper teamed up with Resilient Technologies to produce a tire tread mounted to a honeycomb wheel designed to fit military vehicles. No air required means this design can operate reliably in the harsh conditions of war. Think of it as Cooper’s answer to Michelin’s airless Tweel concept.

--Gene Petersen and Jennifer Stockburger

Read about more cars, gear, news, and views from SEMA.  Find the best tires for your vehicle. And join the discussion on our Tiretalk forum (available to subscribers).

New child booster seat ratings from IIHS

Today, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released new ratings of child booster seats. The first of their kind, IIHS ranked boosters from those that performed as “best bets” to those that are “not recommended” based on the seat’s ability to correctly position a vehicle’s lap and shoulder belt for booster-age children, not on their performance in simulated crash tests. Unlike child restraints intended for smaller children that have internal harnesses, materials, and structures to restrain children and absorb crash energy, booster seats function as a positioning device to correctly place the child within the vehicle’s seatbelt system. It is the seatbelt that does the restraining with the boosters designed to position those belts across the stronger bony structures of the hip and clavicle/collar bone rather than across the softer tissue of the abdomen and neck.

IIHS, in conjunction with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), measured how the lap and shoulder belts fit a crash-test dummy representing the average size and weight of a six-year-old in each of 41 booster seat models. The booster seats were evaluated using a vehicle seat with lap and shoulder belts in a range of positions based on actual vehicle measurements. Though seatbelts are highly effective at reducing injury in a crash, those that are incorrectly positioned across the lap have the potential to cause injury to the abdomen if positioned too high and if they allow children to slide under them during a crash. Shoulder belts positioned too closely to the neck do not place the load ideally over the clavicle/collar bone but are also uncomfortable, which may cause children to hold the belt away from their neck or put the shoulder portion of the belt behind them, reducing the belt’s protection.

IIHS Best Bets

    * Graco TurboBooster backless with clip
    * Fisher-Price Safe Voyage backless with clip
    * Combi Kobuk backless with clip
    * Fisher-Price Safe Voyage
    * Britax Parkway
    * LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear
    * Safeguard Go backless with clip
    * Volvo booster cushion
    * Recaro Young Style
    * Britax Monarch

Details of the ratings and how they were arrived at can be found at www.IIHS.org.

In making an assessment of which booster seats best fit children, IIHS provides an important and as yet unmeasured piece of the puzzle. Consumer Reports' Ratings include some of the seats also tested by IIHS and are based on our evaluations of how easy the seats are to use, how they fit in vehicles, and how they perform in a variety of simulated crash scenarios. Seats that we rate well and that also show as “good” or “best bets” in the IIHS evaluations provide the best potential for protecting a child in a crash.  If you own a seat that falls into the “not recommended” category from IIHS, it’s more important to perform your own assessment of fit with your own child and car based on the steps outlined below.

But don’t forget some important points:

•    Booster seats are an important step in child passenger safety and should not be overlooked.  Although laws in most states now require the use of boosters for children not yet ready for using the vehicle belts alone, and research has shown them to significantly reduce the potential for injury and death, non-use is still higher than among other child restraint types. Often, children are in vehicles wearing only the seatbelts or are not restrained at all before they’re old or large enough to do so safely.

•    Kids and cars come in all shapes and sizes. As IIHS points out, though the six-year-old dummy used in the study is designed to represent the average six-year-old in stature, it certainly does not represent all kids. Parents and caregivers should make a similar assessment of their own child in their own vehicle to determine if their booster seat is working as intended. Answer these questions to determine if your seat is providing the proper fit:
    o    Does the booster seat position the shoulder belt across the clavicle/collar bone, approximately mid-way between the neck and shoulder?
    o    Does the booster seat position the lap belt low across the hips/top of the thighs?
    o    Does either the booster seat or vehicle head restraint provide some support behind the child’s head?
    o    Is your child comfortable and not tempted to move the belts or themselves out of position after a period of time?

•     Don’t rush to move your kids to the next step (PDF download) in terms of restraint use. Very often a step-up to the next level of restraint means a step-down in terms of overall safety .

•    Regardless of how a seat rates, remember it is best for children to ride in any booster than to let them ride unbuckled or in the vehicle belts alone.

Learn more about how to choose the right child safety seat, including the available types and features.

—Jennifer Stockburger

Personal picks—Convertibles, round 2

Back in April when we published our picks of the recent crop of drop-tops, a reader posted this comment: “With 75% of VW Beetle convertible buyers [being] women and 68% Camry Solara convertible buyers women, it would have been nice to hear what your women testers thought of these cars.”

Fair question. So we tracked several female Cars staffers and asked them which convertibles they’d most like to see in their driveways. Here are their responses:

Jennifer Stockburger: The truth is, with two little kids, coupes and convertibles are a bit tougher to classify than other vehicle types into my "Personal Picks." But, if I fast-forward a few years to a time when moving child seats and backpacks in and out won’t be such a concern, I think I’d have to go with the Volkswagen Eos.

From the first time I saw it on the show floor at the New York Auto Show a couple of years ago, I loved its styling and hoped performance would come to match it. Following our testing, it not only proved a good performer, but included many really well thought-out additions that set it apart from the rest. Things like the sunroof, the iPod dock and the really nicely finished interior make you want to show this car off. It’s easy to love. The biggest thing to get used to, for me, would be the initial lag in the throttle response. Though the car does seem to be marketed toward a younger driver, who’s to say that a middle-aged Mom (like me) won’t be just as happy in it?

Shawn Sinclair: The first car I owned was a 1976 MG Midget. Once I got most of the Lucas parts replaced and worked out a few other problems, the car was a blast to drive. In this convertible group, I find myself migrating toward the VW Eos and the BMW 328i. I really liked the Eos even though it has a few quirks. Regarding the BMW, it’s a nice car to drive, but if I had $50K to spend on a convertible, it would be a Chevrolet Corvette. However, the model that trumps them all is one with a reasonable price and is fun to drive: Look no further than the Mazda Miata.

Liza Barth: I agree with Jennifer that choosing a convertible would be the last car type that I would think of considering since I have a toddler and another baby on the way, but it may be something to consider in another stage of life. The Eos is definitely a car I could live with (if it were just my husband and I driving, since the back seat is snug). I also like the BMW 328i as it was fun to drive and has a sporty feel, but I can’t imagine spending $50k on a car with a small trunk and cramped rear seats. I guess I’m just too practical.

Toyota Sienna AWD run-flat tires: No worse for wear

Lots of tire life left based on our extended tread-life test.

We’ve had a series of blog reports on our Toyota Sienna following the tread life performance of its run-flat tires.  (See the links below.) Now, at just over 30,000 miles, (30,247 miles to be exact, as shown) we’re impressed with the wear performance of the tires, which are projected to wear out at no less than 54,000 miles—comparable or better than conventional all-season tires.   

For those of you just joining us, we purchased a new 2007 Toyota Sienna XLE AWD with the Dunlop SP Sport 4000 Self-Supporting Technology tires (DSST)—run-flat tires. After the road test was completed, we purchased a new set of Dunlop SP Sport 4000 DSST tires for a tread-life evaluation on our Sienna. The evaluation started at the end of March 2007 and now, one year later, the tires still are trucking on.

To be fair to the tires, we have been checking inflation pressures religiously; checking alignment, rotating the tires, and measuring the average tread depth in tread grooves (four grooves) across the tire’s tread width and at four places around the tire for a total of sixteen test points. In the course of the 30,000 mile test we measured tread depth of the new tires, and then eleven times throughout the test, most at 2,000-mile intervals.   

Some readers/subscribers have griped that nobody checks tires as often as we did and most certainly do not check alignments that often. To that end, we checked the tire’s inflation pressure just about every month, just like you should do. As for wheel alignment, we did check it routinely but never had to readjust the wheel alignment settings at all. And then there were our drivers, a sorted bunch of car enthusiasts, office administrators, and maintenance staff who drove the minivan all those miles. 

Minivans don’t excite many employees here with all the cars that we get to drive at our Auto Test Center, but with the enticement of free fuel, people were fighting over the use of the van, especially for long vacation trips. And so the van has been all over the New England region, and it enjoyed more places than I will ever see, from venturing into the deep-south of the United States to traveling across a wide swath of Canada.

At just over 30,000 miles, the tires still have about 25,000 miles or more left based on the fastest wearing groove, before they are worn-out to the tread wear indicator of 2/32” depth. On average, just two tires were about 50 percent worn out, one was just over 40 percent worn out, and a fourth tire had to be replaced after the previous tread measurement point due to an encounter with a large pot hole.  The tires were wearing faster at their shoulder grooves with a slight cupped shoulder. That continued to be the case at the last measurement, but the wear progressed more evenly across the width of the tire ensuring many more miles of happy travel. 

The bottom line: Our test doesn’t guarantee that you will get the same mileage. As they say, results may vary, as the total tire range depends on how and where you drive. But given the variability of our test with different drivers, roads, and seasons driven, we feel that with proper maintenance you can enjoy a long relationship with your Sienna’s run-flat tires.   

Background
Toyota Sienna all-wheel-drive owners clearly have a beef with the short tread life of the standard run-flat tires and continue to share complaints in letters and Cars forums posts, especially in Tire Talk, the online-subscriber-only tire forum at ConsumerReports.org. We've also covered the frustration of Sienna owners regarding fast-wearing tires here in the Cars blog.

As we’ve said before, most owners were pleased with the overall performance of their AWD Sienna—one of the top-rated models in Consumer Reports tests—but few are satisfied with the run-flat tire tread life, cost of replacement, and limited models from which to choose (two original-equipment suppliers). Some even have psychological fears about not having a spare tire on board.

Many owners have complained that the run-flat tires wear out much quicker than expected or unevenly—often within 15,000 to 20,000 miles. Some owners found themselves facing an aggravating annual tire replacement, costing $700 or more. Toyota finally addressed the issue last year with an extended warranty on 2004 to some 2006 model-year vehicles, mostly addressing the irregular wear condition. Later-model vehicles came with a revised tire intended to eliminate the wear condition.

—Gene Petersen, Jen Stockburger, Ryan Pszczolkowski

Related blog posts:
Update: Toyota Sienna AWD run-flat tires
Toyota Sienna AWD run-flat tires wear well for us
Toyota Sienna AWD tires - patience wearing thin
Toyota extends run-flat tire warranty
Toyota Sienna run-flat tires? Spare us.
Run-flat tires go flat with our readers       

Research tires with our expanded tools. Discuss in the Cars forums, especially in Tire Talk, the online-subscriber-only tire forum.

Redesigned tires section - tire ratings and sizes now easier to find

The Tires section at ConsumerReports.org has been redesigned, and we couldn't be more excited about the changes. Now, online subscribers can review the sizes each tested tire model is available in, making it easy to find the best tires for your vehicle. (These new charts eliminate the need to search manufacturer Web sites for available sizes.)

To get started from the Tires & Car Care page, or the Tires-specific landing page, you simply choose the type of tires you need.

We streamlined the tire categories as follows:

• Car Tires: regular all-season, performance all-season, and ultra-performance tires. 
• Truck Tires: all-season and all-terrain models. 
• Winter Tires: Q-speed rated tires (sometimes called "regular winter tires") and performance winter tires in higher speed ratings.

Pick a category and start your quest for the right tire to suit your needs. Unsure of what you need? We have helpful advice under How To Choose and Tire Size and Type accessible from any of the three tire categories, appearing as prominent links on the left side of the page. There's also direct links to CR Quick Picks, Ratings, and Ratings By Tire Size.  And you can get a more in-depth report by selecting Learn More About. 

As a reminder: CR Quick Picks are our top recommendations within a tire type. Ratings provides overall score and specific ratings of major performance categories like dry, wet, winter grip, comfort, rolling resistance, and tread-life (where applicable). Ratings by tire size gives the overall score for each model and the sizes in which each model is available, organized by wheel diameter. This feature also shows higher speed rated models  when available, which can be useful for those who might want to upgrade from, say, a S- or T-regular all-season tire to a performance or ultra-performance model with a higher speed rating.

The Tires home page still has useful links on general Buying Advice, Care & Safety, and CR blogs on tires.

We hope you enjoy the new redesign! Post your feedback below, and then join the Tires team in the Tire Talk forum.

—Gene Petersen, Jen Stockburger, Ryan Pszczolkowski

Video review - Nissan Altima

As we found in our recent family sedan tests, the Altima 3.5 SE V6 and the four-cylinder Altima 2.5 S are relatively refined. Both are coupled to a smooth continuously variable transmission, which helps them attain commendable fuel economy. (A hybrid model has just gone on sale.) In our testing, the Altima had good ride and handling, although the sportier 3.5 SE was stiff. At $31,995, our 3.5 SE had options such as heated leather seats, a backup camera, bi-xenon headlights, and a navigation system. Despite its hefty price, our tested car didn’t have optional stability control. At $22,705, our 2.5 S came with antilock brakes and a power driver’s seat as options.

Watch our video review below on this high-scoring sedan.   

Read the full review (available to online subscribers), complete with detailed testing data and report.

See more car review videos, auto show videos, and crash test videos.

Run-flat tires do have their advantages (and fans)

We received many responses to our story on the pros and cons of run-flat tires.

People often indicated that we'd missed the mark and that, in their opinion, the safety benefits of run-flat tires certainly did not outweigh the problems. Our reader/subscriber letters agreed that run-flats have issues:

• Difficult to find replacements in certain areas
• Limited number of replacement models
• Inability to repair run-flats
• High replacement costs

Some even said that these issues were greater concerns than most were willing to live with -- even with extended the mobility run-flats offer. However, after suffering a flat this past Thanksgiving eve, I'm still convinced that run-flats do, indeed, offer a safety benefit.

Let me explain.

Much of the pre-Thanksgiving traffic was in full swing, as many businesses closed on time (if not early) to allow their employees to get home early. I'd signed out our Sienna AWD minivan (equipped with run-flat tires) for the long holiday weekend to travel to Vermont with my family and to add miles to the tires for our ongoing long-term wear evaluation. I picked up my children from daycare—two kids ages three and eight—and put them in their child seats. The van was also full of all the stuff I needed for the weekend: cocktail party supplies; a movie screen for entertaining the children during the party; folding chairs that I borrowed for additional seating on Thanksgiving and for the party; and a mix of food and beverages... You get the picture.

As we're traveling on a rural—and particularly narrow—Connecticut road, we came up over a knoll to find an approaching pickup towing a trailer and taking a bit more than its fair share of the road. I'm somewhat forced to go a bit farther to the shoulder than I normally drive and end up hitting something (I'm not sure if it was simply a pothole or a rock) rather hard. I hadn't gone fifty yards when the Sienna's tire-pressure monitoring system lights up—I knew I had a flat.

Well, let me just tell you if I had been driving on standard, non-run-flat tires and needed to make a tire change, I'm fairly sure that I would not have been able to do it safely in the location I was in without putting my children, myself, and the Sienna in serious danger. You see, the same knoll that prevented the approaching pickup from seeing me would have prevented anyone from seeing my tire-flattened Sienna as well. Thinking back, I'm fairly sure I would have sacrificed the wheel and would have simply driven on the flat tire until I could have gotten out of that location.

But...as luck would have it, I quickly and almost joyously remembered: THE SIENNA HAS RUN-FLATS! Not only would I be able to safely drive myself and my family home (albeit a bit slower), I wouldn't be standing in the middle of the road unloading my children, food, drinks, movie screen, and chairs in order to change a tire.

A day later I drove—carefully, mind you—on that same tire without any pressure in it to a location where I could get the flat changed.

Admittedly, before this all happened, I could have only envisioned a variety of scenarios where run-flats would have been beneficial in the event of a flat -- a busy highway, an uneven shoulder where jacking a car could be dangerous, or in very poor or cold weather. Little did I realize they'd be my saving grace on such a dark Thanksgiving eve with kids and a load of stuff on a narrow country road in Connecticut.

—Jennifer Stockburger

Share your experiences in the Comments below, or in our Cars forums.

Related blog posts:
Update: Toyota Sienna AWD run-flat tires
Toyota Sienna AWD run-flat tires wear well for us
Toyota Sienna AWD tires - patience wearing thin
Toyota extends run-flat tire warranty
Toyota Sienna run-flat tires? Spare us.
Run-flat tires go flat with our readers   

Baby seats: Don't pull a Britney

It might be her “Prerogative” to use a front-facing child safety seat, but Britney Spears certainly caused a media frenzy with the recently published photo of her son in the back seat of a Mini Cooper convertible. Most experts who weighed in on this thought that the child should have been in a rear-facing seat.

In Britney’s defense, CR’s own safety evaluations of the Mini Cooper found that “the deep seat contour and seatbelts anchored forward of the seatback make securing rear-facing seats difficult.” The truth is that her son was potentially safer in a secure front-facing seat than in a rear-facing seat that didn’t fit tightly. As the photo we saw suggests, the greater concern should be the apparently loose harness that holds him in place as his body--not just his head--looks slumped over the side of the seat.

Unfortunately, a few months ago she was also photographed driving her SUV with her son on her lap. Now, many think that if she puts her “Baby one more time” in automotive child seat peril she’ll be “Lucky” to escape with only a media backlash.

Truthfully, though, if each of us were hounded as much as Ms. Spears and her son are, we potentially would all have photos of times when our children weren’t in the safest environment. The clear message from all of this should be that it only takes a few moments to properly secure a child, and you need to make your best efforts every single time. Whether you think you’re protecting your child from encroaching paparazzi or just not wanting to bother securing a top tether because you have to move the grocery bags behind the rear seat, not using best practices could be the worst decision you’ll ever make. In fact, it may behoove all of us to behave as if a team of photographers were following us around 24/7.  If the potential existed that our actions regarding our children might end up in photos on the front page of tomorrow’s paper, perhaps we’d all make better, safer and more educated decisions. 

Though, we wouldn’t call her approach to child safety “Overprotected,” hopefully she’ll “Do somethin’” to improve her performance. Perhaps she should click on the links below so she can’t say “Don't let me be the last to know” how to properly install a child safety seat. We’re “Anticipating” that it won’t happen again.

Joking song titles aside, it might be an opportune time for Ms. Spears to step up as a spokesperson for proper child safety seat installations. Our bet is that a whole bunch of young parents might listen.

Resources:
CR’s guide to choosing a child safety seat
NHTSA Child Passenger Safety Program

Britney and Child Safety
MSNBC

--Mike Quincy & Jennifer Stockburger

Toyota Rav4 buying experience, part 2

Upon arriving to pick up the RAV4, I discovered that it’s not the Base model I was promised, but a Limited that cost over $2,000 more. It had the side air bags, but that pushed it beyond my target – after all, this RAV4 is scheduled to be tested with other “base” models, such as the Subaru Forester 2.5X.

Unfortunately, due to Toyota’s “regional builds,” I was told that I couldn’t get a Base RAV4 in New England with side air bags. I was told the company doesn’t ship them here.

To be fair, the fine print on Toyota’s Web site says the following:

“Please remember, Toyota vehicles are built with popular option combinations. Not all options are available separately and some options and accessories may not be available in all regions of the country. So please contact your Toyota dealer, who can help locate the vehicle that's right for you.”

Still, why would Toyota’s Web site permit you to “build” a car it has no intention of delivering to your zip code? Further, why did the salesman tell me they had such a vehicle?

Since I was told that I couldn’t get a base RAV4 with side air bags, I had to make a decision about the “price of safety.” We always encourage readers to buy key safety features, so it’s important for us to put our money where our mouth is. It doesn’t seem to make sense that you have to spend a premium for the Limited trim line (which gets you a power seat, automatic climate system and larger wheels, among other things) in order to get side air bags.

Perturbed that I wasn’t told my car was a Limited model, I cancelled the deal. I then spent most of the day redoing a deal to buy a Base model--regrettably without side air bags. While there, I saw several RAV4s on the lot. Turns out, my ex-Limited was not the only one they had.

We finally made a deal on a RAV4 Base that they had in stock. This is important, because since they knew I was from CR, I didn’t want the dealer to contact Toyota corporate and get me a specially-prepared model. Our rules dictate that we test the same cars as the general public, so buying an in-stock model was imperative.

The clincher, and this is what really soured me on this whole deal, was that my salesman asked that when I receive the purchase satisfaction survey form from Toyota if I would be so kind as to fill it out with all “excellent” ratings as “my gift” to him. I just was put through the ringer at this dealership, and the word “excellent” wasn’t the term that first came to mind. I’ve purchased over 30 cars for CR, and this buying experience is among the worst. The salesperson even gave me a preprinted survey with all of the “excellent” boxes already filled in, “in case I need it.”

You’ve got to be kidding. I think I’ll fill it out on my own, thanks.

--Jennifer Stockburger

Toyota RAV4 buying experience, part 1

CR Senior Engineer Jennifer Stockburger shares a car-buying experience from hell:

My goal was to buy a redesigned 2006 Toyota RAV4 AWD for our test program using the Internet and phone to arrange the purchase before visiting a dealership. I was looking for a four-cylinder Base model with side air bags.

Toyota’s Web site shows that side air bags are optional on the Base model. Like most manufacturers’ sites, you begin the building process by entering your zip code. Following the instructions, I entered our Connecticut zip code, then proceeded to build the vehicle with “Option Combination #D” for side air bags.

After I contacted a local dealership, a salesman said that they had a RAV4 in their showroom equipped “just as you want it.” I gave the salesman a $200 credit card deposit over the phone to hold the car. We scheduled a follow-up meeting when I would go to the dealership and sign the paperwork.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and he still didn’t know I was from Consumer Reports.

Unfortunately, we had a typical New England snow storm on the meeting day. I couldn’t get out of my driveway, so I cancelled the appointment. We went back and forth as to when we could get together. His day off was Thursday, I had to travel another day, and so on. Throughout the exchange, he gave me the clear impression that his time was more valuable than mine. He twice asked me why I couldn’t come in on Saturday, to which I replied that that day was my time off. Plus, the thought of dragging along my two children to do this gave me pause.

Still, I was reassured that my vehicle was the only RAV4 he had, and that it’s “locked in the showroom.” To lay the guilt on even thicker, he said that his boss was complaining that it’s taking up too much space: People can’t get in it and the dealer can’t really show the car. I suggested he take the RAV4 out; it didn’t matter to me if it got snowy.

We continued having scheduling problems, and he told me, “If you don’t pick up this car on Monday, that’s it.” At this point, the end of the month was fast approaching and he likely wanted this deal to be in the books by then.

So that the paperwork could be prepared, I told him that Consumers Union would be the vehicle owner. Our policy is to wait until the delivery day to disclose that a test car will be registered to Consumers Union.

To be continued…

--Jennifer Stockburger