The Trump Mis-Administration today proposed [proposal < click here, thereby Making America Poor Again – AutoCrat] to reduce fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Obviously, this would significantly raise the cost of driving a car for years to come.* It also could also damage the competitiveness of U.S. automakers in a global industry. The preliminary Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – not yet officially published in the Federal Registers as required – would gut standards set by the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2024. Those standards would save owners of personal vehicles an average of more than $600 in fuel costs over the life of a new vehicle.**
“Efficient vehicles save money for Americans. This proposal would raise fuel costs for millions of drivers, adding to the financial strain on families and businesses,” said Rachel Aland, transportation director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). “If this rule is finalized, U.S. automakers will be less competitive as other countries race ahead in manufacturing cleaner vehicles that cost less to drive.”*** Continue reading
Japanese Top Consumer Reports 2026 Automotive Report
Click to enlarge.
Each year, CR independently tests about 50 new cars at its 327-acre Auto Test Center in Connecticut. Additionally, CR surveys its millions of members to gather data on reliability and owner satisfaction for hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually, spanning a two-decade range of model years. This extensive data enables the organization to create a comprehensive analysis of automotive quality, including brand-level rankings. Speaking to the Automotive Press Association today, CR analyzed the just published 2026 Automotive Report Card.
“We’re releasing new overall score rankings,” said Jake Fisher, CR’s Senior Director of Automotive Testing. “That’s really who makes the best cars along with new car reliability, used car reliability, which is really looking 5 to 10 year old models that are on out in the road, owner satisfaction, our road test scores, repair costs. … We have all the information for each one of the models on our website. That’s all live right now…. We are very excited that this year. We actually have the most amount of vehicles that we’ve had for a very long time. We’ve made some changes to make the survey easier to complete. … We’ve actually gone from 300,000 vehicles in the survey to 380,000 vehicles in the survey. That’s total.” Continue reading →