New Delhi: Consumer Reports has found the Toyota Prius to be the best overall value for the automotive dollar and the Nissan Armada the worst in its annual Best New-Car Value analysis.
This is the second straight year that the Prius has topped CR's best-value list, which focuses on the cars that give the most value for money. The popular hybrid has the right combination of performance, reliability and low estimated five-year ownership costs of 47 cents per mile.
Last year, the Prius unseated the perennial best-value leader, the Honda Fit.
According to CR analysis, the Prius' 44 mpg overall is the best fuel economy of any non-plug-in car that Consumer Reports has tested.
The Armada, a large SUV that gets only 13 mpg overall and scored poorly in Consumer Reports' annual reliability survey, costs a hefty $1.20 per mile, according to CR's analysis.
In creating its annual Best and Worst New-Car Values list, Consumer Reports mines its performance, reliability, and owner-cost data to calculate a value score for more than 200 different vehicles ranging from small cars like the Hyundai Accent and Honda Fit to luxury sedans such as the Cadillac XTS and BMW 750Li.
The scores were calculated based on the five-year owner cost for each vehicle, along with Consumer Reports' road-test score and the organization's own predicted-reliability score from the latest Annual Auto Survey. In short, the better a car performs in Consumer Reports' road tests and reliability ratings, and the less it costs to own over time, the better its value.
Here are all ten of the magazine's best-in-class winners:
