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Electric vehicles are significantly less reliable than conventional cars powered by gas or hybrid vehicles, according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. The annual car reliability survey by Consumer Reports found that EVs are 79 percent more likely to have problems than conventional cars. Consumers reported that electric drive motors, charging and EV batteries had the most common issues associated with EVs, according to the survey. Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, noted that there may be “growing pains” among EVs because they are based on new technology or are being manufactured by new upstart...

Lexus and Toyota took the top spots for brand reliability, followed by Mini, Acura, Honda, and Subaru. And while EVs are growing in popularity, CR’s members experience 79 percent MORE problems with their EVs compared to gas-powered cars. EV trouble spots include issues with charging, electric motors, and battery problems. “Our members are reporting the same issues with most EVs as they are with vehicles that have been designed brand new from the ground up, whether they’re gas or electric. And EVs are about the newest technology out there,” Barry said. “And it’s taking a while, even for established carmakers...

Electric vehicles are among the least reliable cars and trucks in the automotive industry today, according to Consumer Reports rankings released Tuesday. Reliability issues with all-electric vehicles were expected, since most automakers, with the exception of early EV-leader Tesla, launched fully electric models in just recent years. Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.

Thousands of cars are damaged or destroyed by floods every year, but don’t assume all those vehicles end up in a junkyard. Some are repaired and resold in other parts of the country without the buyer being aware of the car’s waterlogged history. In fact, Carfax says were 378,000 flooded cars were back on the roads in 2021, and Hurricane Ian is certain to see many more damaged cars added to the high-demand used-car market. (snip)

A new nationwide survey from Consumer Reports shows that range anxiety and cost are the primary factors holding back consumers from purchasing an electric vehicle. Only 14 pct of respondents said they would definitely buy an EV, not enough to support a vibrant used EV market. Consumer Reports recently released the results of its nationally representative survey of 8,027 American adults on their views towards electric vehicles. Here were the major takeaways:On buying/leasing an EV: Fourteen percent of respondents said they “would definitely buy or lease an electric-only vehicle”, over half (57%) said they would consider/seriously consider it and more...

Three Democratic U.S. senators on Monday said they are introducing legislation that would require U.S. regulators to mandate installation of driver-monitoring systems to ensure motorists pay attention while using systems like Tesla's Autopilot.Senators Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar introduced the measure on Monday, saying they hope to get it included as part of infrastructure reform legislation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened 28 probes into Tesla crashes to date, with 24 pending, where Autopilot was suspected of being in use.The measure also requires the agency "to study how driver-monitoring systems can prevent driver distraction, driver disengagement,...

Consumer Reports said the condoms given out by Planned Parenthood are defective According to Consumer Reports, the condoms given out by Planned Parenthood are defective.Below is a screenshot from Consumer Reports. (You can see a bigger version of the image by clicking on it twice.)Both of the two condoms at the very bottom of the ratings are from Planned Parenthood. Both had a score of “poor” (the worst possible score) in the category called “strength.” One of them also scored “poor” in the category called “reliability.”For an organization that makes money by selling abortions, it’s a very clever business strategy for...

Tesla shares fall nearly 2 percent after a new report, based in part on the reviews of thousands of vehicle owners, raises questions about the reliability of Tesla's Model 3. Consumer Reports says it will no longer recommend the Model 3 due to the reliability issues. A Tesla spokesperson said, "The vast majority of these issues have already been corrected through design and manufacturing improvements." Tesla shares fell after a new report, based in part on the reviews of thousands of vehicle owners, raises questions about the reliability of Tesla's Model 3. Consumer Reports says it will no longer recommend...

Just a few days ago, Microsoft revealed details of the Surface Book 2 which is due to launch in November. But before the device is even available, it has been dealt a blow by Consumer Reports.Earlier in the year, the review group said that problems with reliability meant that it was impossible for it to recommend any Microsoft laptop or tablet. Now Consumer Reports says that this extends to the Surface Book 2, meaning that the device will not be recommended. While hardly the end of the world for Microsoft, this will still come as bad news. The company expressed...

New Apple software fixes a battery issue found in CR tests. The software, now in beta, will be part of a broad update soon. Consumer Reports has now finished retesting the battery life on Apple's new MacBook Pro laptops, and our results show that a software update released by Apple on January 9 fixed problems we’d encountered in earlier testing. With the updated software, the three MacBook Pros in our labs all performed well, with one model running 18.75 hours on a charge. We tested each model multiple times using the new software, following the same protocol we apply to...

Macs tend to fare second best in Consumer Reports testing, partly because the magazine lives in ignorance of the differences between Apple’s computers and Windows boxes. But they’ve always been recommended, until recently. I can quibble about the way the tests appear to emphasize features over performance, usability and reliability. In fact, I have. But it took a poor rating by CR to trigger a dialogue that revealed a serious flaw in their testing. The tests also triggered an obscure bug in Safari for macOS Sierra that might otherwise have remained undiscovered and unfixed. It all started when CR reported...

Consumer Reports withdrew its recommendation for the Tesla Model S — a car the magazine previously raved about — because of poor reliability for the sporty electric sedan. The turnabout comes after the influential consumer magazine handed the luxury car a “worse-than-average” rating in its annual report on the predicted reliability of new vehicles issued Tuesday. The news sent Tesla Motors stock down as much as $23.77, more than 10%, to $204.33 in mid-day trading. See the most-read stories this hour >> Consumer Reports surveyed 1,400 Model S owners “who chronicled an array of detailed and complicated maladies” with the...

A new car shouldn't have problems when you’ve owned it for less than a month. Yet Consumer Reports' brand-new $127,000 Tesla Model S P85 D, with the fancy retractable door handles refused to let us in, effectively rendering the car undriveable. After we’d owned the P85 D for a mere 27 days, with just over 2,300 miles on the odometer, the driver-side door handle failed. The door handles in the Model S retract electrically so they rest flush with the sides of the car when they’re not in use. Walk up to the car with the key fob in your...

About half of the raw chicken breasts in a nationwide sampling carried antibiotic-resistant “superbug” bacteria, a U.S. consumer group said on Thursday, calling for stricter limits on use of the medicines on livestock. It could be more difficult to treat people if they became ill after eating chicken with the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, said Consumer Reports, which describes itself as the world’s largest independent product-testing organization. […] Consumers should cook poultry to 165 degrees F (73.8°C) to kill bacteria and take steps, such as using a separate cutting board for raw meat, to avoid cross-contamination of other foods, Consumer Reports said....

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimated consumers would take an average of 28 minutes to sign up for Obamacare, according to a notice the agency sent to the White House in February. The American Action Forum revealed Thursday that HHS earlier this year predicted consumers would need less than 30 minutes to complete online applications for the health care insurance marketplace. HHS reported those projections to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Healthcare.gov process has not proven so easy in practice. Since its rollout on Oct. 1, the Obamacare exchange has been plagued with technical...

Consumer Reports, which publishes reviews of consumer products and services, advised its readers to avoid the federal healthcare exchange “for at least another month if you can.” “Hopefully that will be long enough for its software vendors to clean up the mess they’ve made,” the magazine said, having tested the site themselves over the course of the past three weeks.Noting that only 271,000 of the 9.47 million people who tried signing up in the first week managed to create an account, Consumer Reports then provided a few tips to those attempting to slog through the application process. From attempting...

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid car that seems to have everything the rich and famous — and environmentally correct — look for in a set of wheels. Sleek silhouette? Check. Green cred? Check. Six-figure price tag? Check. Reliable battery? Not so fast. In a test conducted Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine, the niche-market $107,850 sports car conked out completely, after a short ride at 65 miles per hour on a Connecticut test track. “Our Fisker Karma … is super sleek, high-tech — and now it’s broken,” Consumer Reports wrote on its website late Thursday. “We have owned our...

Electric cars, which wouldn’t even be an option if taxpayers’ money wasn’t propping them up, don’t ultimately save money or cut down pollution. They aren’t reliable to get from here to there. But they can look nice, like the Fisker Karma. Speaking of which, we have this shall we say not entirely unexpected news, courtesy Reuters:...

Our Fisker Karma cost us $107,850. It is super sleek, high-tech—and now it’s broken. We have owned our car for just a few days; it has less than 200 miles on its odometer. While doing speedometer calibration runs on our test track (a procedure we do for every test car before putting it in service by driving the car at a constant 65 mph between two measured points), the dashboard flashed a message and sounded a “bing“ showing a major fault. Our technician got the car off the track and put it into Park to go through the owner’s manual...

A $100,000-plus Fisker Automotive luxury sports car died during Consumer Reports speed testing this week for reasons that are still unknown, leaving the struggling electric car startup with another blow to its image. "It is a little disconcerting that you pay that amount of money for a car and it lasts basically 180 miles before going wrong," David Champion, senior director for the magazine's automotive test center, told Reuters, on Thursday. In a statement, Fisker said it was assessing the source of the problem that caused its Karma plug-in hybrid to fail. Fisker dispatched two engineers Wednesday night to...