There has taken place a vital increase in the “bundles” of new cars rated by experts on the occasion of the Los Angeles auto show and judging of new cars by Pulitzer Prize champion Dan Neil, automotive columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former contributor to the Los Angeles Times, AutoWeek and Car and Driver.
Quartets, rather than trios, now are the determining groups on screens of the raters and pickers.
To wit: Consumer Reports has issued ‘recommended’ awards for only four new models out of the fifty displayed in the LA coliseum-all domestic-built: Cadillac XTS, Lincoln MKS, Chevrolet Spark and Dodge Dart.
Another quartet of award-grabbing cars surfaced during LA show week from Dan Neil who confined his choices to Ford’s hybrid pair-C-Max and Fusion, Nissan GT-R, Honda CR-Z, and hybrid Prius.
Sedans from the Detroit three still earn little respect from Consumer Reports, states Automotive News (November 24, page 44).
But what about those handy perennials (3-Series, E-Class, Sonata, ATS, Scion, Passat?)
If Consumer Reports repeated its gross bias towards domestic sedans a year hence, it would be a story angle Pulitzer alumnus Neil would be compelled to explain! He’d owe an alibi to those neglected foreign sedans.
