From Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
EAST HADDAM, CT — Likely you’re familiar with Consumer Reports magazine and its reputation for scrupulous testing of vacuum cleaners, contraceptives, cordless drills, tuna, spray paint and, of course, automobiles. Its April “annual auto issue,” released in March, is must reading not only for car buyers but for car executives.
It would be overestimating the reach of Consumer Reports to say it can make or break a vehicle, but not by much. With a circulation of more than 4 million — roughly triple the world’s largest automotive publication — the magazine’s effect is enormous.
Says one General Motors executive: “I don’t know if they can make or break a car, but they can make or break a career.”
So who are these people?
An assumption might be that they are a bunch of humorless clipboard-carrying engineers, clad in white lab coats, who really don’t much like cars.
That assumption might be wrong, except for the clipboard and lab-coat part.
“Most of us here like cars,” says one of the 19 employees who work at the southern Connecticut facility. “Love cars. That’s why we do this.”
“We do love cars,” says David Champion, senior director of the automotive technical division. “Good cars, anyway.”
Champion, a Brit who used to work for Land Rover, has a large collection of vintage Jaguars that, as vintage Jaguars often do, run sporadically. One senior engineer races with the Sports Car Club of America. A data analyst enjoys autocross racing in his personal car on weekends. Rik Paul, the automotive editor who heads the editorial staff at company headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., came from Motor Trend, an enthusiast publication if there ever was one.
Consumer Reports testing is done at a 327-acre facility that parent company Consumers Union bought in 1986 and opened in 1989. It used to be the Connecticut Dragway — as the state’s only drag strip, the purchase was not exactly applauded by area racers — and the magazine has completely renovated and repaved the track. It has added a road course, a “skid pad” — a big paved circle that tests handling and tire adhesion — and an off-road course built from enormous boulders set in cement. The company has added roads surfaced with slick pavement, bumpy pavement, noisy pavement. There is a snowmaking machine if tests call for snow, and the weather doesn’t cooperate. If ice is needed in warm weather, testers rent the local skating rink.
All that’s left of the Connecticut Dragway is the old timing-and-scoring tower, now marked as the “Historical District” by a pair of tongue-in-cheek signs, proving, or at least suggesting, that engineers have a sense of humor.
The testing facility is among the best in the country. Even the largest automotive publications must rent or borrow facilities, thus making the Consumer Reports compound the envy of the automotive media.
Another central difference between what Consumer Reports and other publications do is that CU buys the vehicles it tests, rather than borrowing them from the manufacturer. That’s helpful for multiple reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the magazine does six “bumper bash” tests, three hits to the front with a hydraulic ram, three to the rear. If damage occurs, it’s repaired.
Once the magazine is finished with the car, usually after about 7,000 miles, it’s sold. How? “We send out e-mails to all the Consumer Union employees,” says Gabriel Shenhar, senior engineer. The magazine sets a price, usually about 20 percent or 30 percent less than what it paid for the car, and the buyer is selected by lottery from the interested employees. It’s a big undertaking: “We bought 49 cars last year,” Champion says. Individuals make the initial purchase; it isn’t until the dealer asks how to title the car that the dealer knows it’s for Consumer Reports.
All this is impressive, but it’s no secret, as Consumer Reports likes to pat itself on the back, and deservedly so. Less well-known is the scope of what is going on here. Champion and his staff love to come up with new tests that, really, no other publication can duplicate. Example: After the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire mess, it was suggested that the tires failed because of heat generated because of underinflation. So Champion wondered: How much air does a tire typically lose? The magazine bought dozens of new tires, mounted them on special stands in a sealed room and measured the air pressure for months. The upshot: Some tires lose a lot of air, some not so much.
Located in a very rural area, staffers noticed that during nighttime drives, some vehicles had excellent headlights, some didn’t. So one of the engineers now regularly checks the solunar tables, and on select moonless nights, the staff spends the evening measuring the reach and effectiveness of headlights. But even that can be subject to circumstances beyond the control of Consumer Reports — and if it is one thing the testers hate, it’s circumstances beyond their control — so they built what is referred to as the Headlight Building, a big, absolutely dark structure to be used primarily for headlight testing, and other tests not yet dreamed up.
Such as? Perhaps tests of outward visibility, Champion says. He has noticed that to varying degrees, styling and aerodynamics can conspire to limit outward visibility for drivers. They’re working on a laser beam that encircles a car — a 360-degree circle of light. The test would determine how many of those 360 degrees of light a driver sees.
Though Consumer Reports began testing cars in 1936, Champion and his crew still fight that credibility issue with automotive enthusiasts. Not long ago, they hosted a New York City Lamborghini club. Members drove nearly 50 Lamborghinis to East Haddam. “We want to dispel the myth that we are not passionate about cars,” Champion told the group. “We’re all car nuts here.”
Car nuts, with clipboards and lab coats.
Copyright 2005 The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. All Rights Reserved.
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