Is it time to modernize road tests?

Toronto Star file photo

Wheels Editor Mark Richardson and chief correspondent Jim Kenzie compare notes while 'test-driving' a Maybach 62 from its back seats.

Jim Kenzie

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

A reader writes:

Jim — you and your cohorts who write reviews on cars have such an opportunity to publish real useful info on new cars, but you do not.

Reading most of Wheels' articles on new car features is like reading Motor Trend in the 1960s. All you talk about is the engine and transmission options. Occasionally you will insert a comment like “a 10 per cent increase in fuel use.” So what does that mean? Is it something I will actually notice in my driving, or is it an engineer's calculation of theoretical fuel use?

Most cars today have pretty good engines and transmissions, so although interesting, not likely a real decision maker for most buyers.

The following is a list of things that a modern car review or road test should include to be really meaningful to a prospective buyer.

• Is scheduled maintenance included during the warranty period?

What is the annual cost of scheduled maintenance for the first 10 years of the vehicle's use? This is pretty easy to get — most dealers publish such a list in their service areas. Did you know that the scheduled maintenance on a Lexus SUV is about double that of an Acura MDX over seven years?

• What real-world fuel economy should I expect? Not what it gets in a bench test at 100 km/h, but what does it get at 120-to-130 km/h, and in city traffic?

How easy is it to set up a sync for my smartphone to the vehicle's integrated communications system? How well does this integration work in day-to-day use?

• How well do the vehicle's voice control functions actually work in day-to-day use?

• Can I sync my phone's music to the vehicle's audio system and control it all from the vehicle's control system?

• Does the vehicle's GPS system have audio “turn by turn” with the street name spoken? I do not believe any vehicles today have such a feature but virtually all Garmin GPS aftermarket units do. Does the vehicle's GPS have free traffic monitoring and lane assist like Garmin units do? Easy and free GPS map updates available that can be user installed quickly?

•What features does the vehicle offer that improve the driver's attention to the road, like blind spot monitoring, intelligent cruise control, one-touch lane-change turn signal, memory seat positions?

All of these points are things that I look for when shopping for a new vehicle, as do most of the people I know. When I read a review that says the car has three engine options and two transmissions and a new grille, I think, well, the author took about two minutes to get this info and really knows nothing about this vehicle that might actually create an interest for the reader.

It's time to modernize car reviews. Please give my points some thought before you hit the delete key and maybe you would even be willing to share this email with the other Wheels writers.

Hit the delete key on a reader's inquiry? Never!

In fact, my thanks to this reader for raising some interesting and important points.

Different people (and different sets of friends — birds of a feather, etc.) do have different things they want to know about a car.

Especially for a “preview,” where we (and the reading audience) are seeing the car for the first time, we feel it is important to know what the broader options — powertrain availability, ride and handling, trim levels, standard equipment, etc. — are and whether, in general, the car should or should not be on the “shopping list” for prospects in its segment.

For a longer test we can, probably should and, I think, do provide more detail.

Understand that even in such longer tests, we only have the car for a week. Hence it is not possible to deliver an opinion on every possible detail. We also have only so many words — never enough!

Specific to some of his points, I am working on a larger story about the ease of syncing smartphones. Some cars (Hyundai, Kia) metaphorically rip the phone out of your hand (or, er, briefcase —hands-free, don't you know), slam your phonebook into its memory, and tell you to carry on; others (Ford, with its Sync system) seem to treat this process like you are trying to break into the defence department's computer.

Some of the data this reader would like to see is simply not possible after a one-week test. Real-world fuel economy, for example, depends to a huge degree on where and how you drive, ambient temperature, etc. Since those factors, especially weather conditions, are not consistent week to week or even month to month, such data would, in my view, be less than meaningless. The Transport Canada numbers may not be accurate, but they are at least comparable, vehicle to vehicle.

The other inconvenient fact, with respect to fuel consumption, is that, compared to other cost factors, fuel consumption is relatively unimportant.

If you're comparing vehicles within a segment — sub-compact hatchback versus sub-compact hatchback — differences between similar vehicles are almost vanishingly small when added up over the expected ownership duration of the vehicle.

Things like scheduled maintenance over, again, the “expected ownership duration” of the vehicle, would be of interest to some people, especially as the average life of that ownership duration period is growing. To the substantial portion of the vehicle “ownership” population who lease vehicles, however, it matters not so much, if at all.

Depreciation remains the biggest single expense of new-car ownership.

Again, that is built into the lease rates you pay for a vehicle; perhaps for outright purchase prospects we should include an estimate — Black Book or whatever — of the three- or four-year expected resale value for every new car we test. However, those data are based on past experience and do not necessarily predict what you might expect in the future.

It's a similar story for reliability data, which, of course, are not unrelated to depreciation data. Basing a decision exclusively on history does not allow for improvements by those manufacturers whose history, perhaps, is not quite as stellar.

I think all road testers do try to point out some of the features asked about here. As an example, I can cover off blind-spot monitoring once and for all, and, in fact, I do so on a regular basis in my tests: they are totally pointless. In the vast majority of cars, if you adjust your mirrors properly, there are no blind spots!

If others among you have some pet piece of information you'd like us to include in our tests, please let us know.

wheels@thestar.ca

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