CR identifies Good Bets and Bad Bets to help guide used car buying decisions

Used cars often offer consumers the best values in the automotive market since new vehicles undergo a rapid depreciation in the first few years. Consumer Reports (CR) 2007 April Auto Issue features the lists of the best and worst used vehicles for 10 model years, 1997 through 2006.

Reliable vehicles and Vehicles to avoid include all models that showed above- or below-average overall reliability in CR's 2006 Annual Car Reliability Survey, which drew responses on about 1.3 million vehicles. CR has found that improved reliability has made used cars more appealing and insurance rates tend to be less expensive.

The Reliable vehicles list is categorized by price and features vehicles that are available from under $4,000 to $30,000 and up. For consumers on a budget, CR found 10 cars that they could purchase for under $4,000 including the 1998 Chevrolet Prizm and the 1997 Toyota Tercel.

CR Good Bets, which is derived from the Reliable vehicles list, features vehicles that have performed well in CR's road tests and have had several years of better-than-average reliability according to survey respondents. CR Good Bets includes vehicles from Acura, Buick, Chevrolet, Honda, Infiniti, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Nissan, Pontiac, Scion, Subaru, and Toyota. Below is the full list of models.

CR GOOD BETS

These models, listed alphabetically, have performed well in Consumer Reports road tests and have had several years of better-than-average reliability according to our survey respondents.

Vehicles that earned below-average Used Car Verdicts, meaning they proved worse or much worse than average earned a spot on the Vehicles to avoid list. Those which showed multiple Used Car Verdicts that were much worse than average were placed on the CR Bad Bets list. The models below from BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, GMC, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Volkswagen, and Volvo consistently had more problems than other models overall. Below is the full list of models.

CR BAD BETS

These vehicles showed multiple Used Car Verdicts that were much worse than average, according to our survey respondents. They consistently had more problems than other models overall.