A Fun Experience at the Dealership

I recently had a firsthand experience with a car dealership that left a sour taste in my mouth. I bought a car, and after telling Consumer Reports about it, they brought me to the final office afterwards and informed me that we made a mistake on my paperwork. The car cost $1,000 more than expected, and I was forced to buy an extended warranty. It was clear that the dealership didn't care who I was or whether I was a secret shopper, as long as I could be sold a higher-priced vehicle.

As I stood there, about to finalize the purchase, walking away from the car, they started running after me. The salesperson asked if I wanted to take my free t-shirt and pointed out that it might look like I was doing a "really bad job" of being a secret shopper. However, in all seriousness, if I showed up at the dealership wearing such attire, I would have gotten a stern talking-to, at the very least.

In Defense of Subaru

I recently wrote an article about the safest cars, and I was surprised to find that Subaru models were missing from the list. Many people, including some who don't even care about cars, asked me where the Subarus were. So, I'm going to explain why they weren't included in the first place.

The criteria we set for our article were specific, and many of the safety features listed as standard on other vehicles were not available on Subaru models at the time. Specifically, blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning systems were optional on most 2024 Subaru models, which didn't meet our standards. We wanted to include only those cars that had these advanced safety features as standard on all trims.

It's worth noting that automatic crash notification was also a key feature we looked for, but it wasn't available on many Subaru models at the time either. In order to make the list, cars had to meet certain safety standards and have data to back up their claims. We didn't want to include vehicles just because they were popular or well-known, but rather those that demonstrated a commitment to safety.

So, if you're considering buying a Subaru, don't assume that it's inherently safer than other models on the list. Instead, look for one with these advanced safety features as standard, and be aware that even with safety-conscious drivers, accidents can still happen if others on the road aren't paying attention.

The Importance of Safety Features Beyond Vehicle Choices

While safety features in our vehicle are certainly important, we must also consider the safety of those around us. Even if a driver is extremely safety-conscious and takes every precaution, there's always a risk that another driver may not be as vigilant. By having advanced safety features on both our vehicle and those around us, we can reduce the risks of accidents.

In conclusion, while Subaru models were missing from our list due to their optional blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning systems, it doesn't mean they're inherently less safe than other vehicles. However, by choosing a model with these features as standard, you'll be taking an important step towards reducing your risk of being involved in an accident.

Kurt's Question Answered

Kurt Kurtz with a K had a question about the article and its absence of Subaru models. I'm happy to address his concern and provide some additional information on why Subaru models were excluded from our list.

The answer is simple: if we looked at every car model, including those without these safety features as standard, it would have added unnecessary complexity to the article. We wanted to focus on cars that had proven systems in place to reduce the risk of accidents and injuries.

However, I want to assure Kurt and our readers that Subaru models are not inherently less safe than other vehicles on the list. If you're interested in buying a Subaru, look for one with blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning as standard features, and don't be afraid to ask about automatic crash notification.

Thanks to Phil for joining us on this episode of Talking Cars. And if you have any questions or topics you'd like to discuss, send them our way at talkingcars@icloud.com. We'll use them on air, so don't hesitate to get in touch!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome back I'm Keith Barry I'm Jake fer I'm Gabe shanor and we bought a cyber truck we did we bought a Tesla cyber truck how crazy is that we ordered it in December of 2019 you bet and it just arrived um well we had to go pick it up uh and we'll talk about that later it's a it's a 2024 Tesla cyber Tru all-wheel drive Foundation series uh 600 horsepower it's the dual motor uh one-speed direct drive all-wheel drive the MSRP it was about $80,000 but it came with the foundation series and in addition to getting a cool Isaac azimov reference on the side on the badging um it also comes with full self-driving and uh a couple other accessories and that cost $220,000 essentially it lets you cut the line and get one of the first on yeah that's the only version you can get now and the foundations basically like in another case would be like first edition exactly like like Kenny Rogers but we're here uh $102,000 basically is how much this thing costs um you know there's there's a lot to talk about a lot has already been said about the Cyber Tru a lot of those things are things that we don't cover here at consum reports but I think it's important to address the elephant in the room kind of write off and then move on and talk about things otherwise uh is a controversial vehicle I've heard I've heard that people have some opinions about this yeah there there there could be some of that yeah you know I mean it's it's interesting because you know this is a vehicle that obviously stands out a lot um I mean you know generally I mean it's like you know you could you know get a Lamborghini or something it's going to stand out this is the first time like a truck I mean I suppose you could lift a truck really high and that'll stand out too but um from the factory this thing obviously doesn't look like anything else on the road MH and and I think because of that and also because you know I I don't think there's any vehicle that that indelibly Bears the Fingerprints of its creator more than this one and it's not just because of the stainless steel uh but I mean this is this is Elon musk's vehicle and a lot of people surprisingly have opinions about Elon musk which is interesting and I think what's important about this in terms of the driving perspective some of those people think he's uh a Visionary truth teller some of them think that he's a conspiracy theorist and a bigot and both of those types of people are going to talk to you when you and interact with you when you drive this car I found well I mean I think it's it's I mean look part of it obviously is Elon Musk who is controversial um you know but obviously has accomplished a whole lot but it's more than that it's also electric there's controversy about electric a giant truck there's controversy about that so basically it's kind of like look it's big it's loud it's different and if you are the type of person who just wants to go to the supermarket and go back home and not talk to a group of people who have many varied opinions probably not the vehicle for you yeah I mean I got many many digits pointed at me uh and you can guess which ones they were thumbs UPS thumbs down it was actually super cool to see like little kids pointing at it the way that I would have pointed at like a count when I was a kid or like you know some Cena something cool out there and also at the same time I've been covering Tesla almost my entire career and the last thing that I want to do is talk about Elon Musk with strangers and that's with this car you know I come out of Costco and there are people around it taking photos and I and I go and hide behind the Subaru park next to it until they leave so so I mean yeah go on yeah yeah the reactions varied uh from anywhere from Total disdain to appreciation I mean mostly disdain but but I mean this this thing is just the the most outlandish otherworldly creation I mean you see it and a lot of people just don't believe like what they're looking at I mean what is this thing I mean how the how did it even get here so uh I mean there's such uh befuddlement about this car that uh you haven't seen any anything like that before honestly I think that that's and and you know what I mean like it or not I mean it's there's like they say there's no bad press I mean it gets attention yeah we're talking about it right now exactly uh I mean honestly I think one of the best things about this car is the fact that it is it is so unique and it's so unique in a lot of ways I wish that more car companies honestly would do and we've seen a little from you know Kia from Hyundai doing some things with their platforms making them really you know not boxed in to the to the to the design constraints yep um and I wish more car companies would do something like this at the same time there's also a lot of really unique things about the vehicle and that's why we're just we're going to we're going to test it like any other vehicle that's the last we're going to talk about Elon Musk that's the last we're going to talk about any of that stuff well I mean I mean you're I mean look we test Vehicles right we do not test styling no there's no now we have this rubric and how we you assess Vehicles we're looking at reliability we're looking at safety and how it drives we do not put into to The Styling The Styling is not part of it and you're right there's a lot of cars that look really good these days and there's some that are a little frumpy but it's not in the ratings but we do talk about driving experience and this is one vehicle that you can't escape that part of the Driving Experience you have to be an extrovert yeah and we evaluate the consequences of styling in terms of functionality such as visibility or access yeah which is important or such as whether you can injure yourself on the sharp sides of the panels but I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here so I mean let's I think we should just sort of start from the beginning here Gabe you you picked this up and the Tesla delivery experience for those who haven't bought one in a while or ever I remember the days when it was like special Tesla would show up and your and you know it was this big deal and then there were the delivery centers where you go and it felt like you know it felt it felt special it felt like you know and you were in boarding group one and and now it doesn't didn't feel like that right right boarding group six at least okay everyone else gate check your bag 10 years ago our model S was delivered here right here it was like beautiful then we went to uh some Tesla centers and picked up model 3es and y's and and whatnot uh in this case I mean it was it was awful I mean you come in even though you have a a specific appointment date and time and you arrive and nobody greets you nothing you stand in line in front of a makeshift table that looks like a neighborhood lemon lemonade stand and you are handed then um a a pile of paper you're sent to a bench somewhere to sign them um and give uh given that uh you know they were all wrong and I had to like change everything there that's besides the point but yeah I mean the the the contempt for the customer is is unreal I mean and and I chatted with other people there and it was the same kind of experience well well Lu I mean and not everyone is going to pick up their cyber truck the exact same location that we purchased it in on the East Coast obviously so I mean your mileage will vary um I I sincerely hope there are much better delivery centers elsewhere in the country but our experience wasn't wasn't great right yeah and also you know to get something out of the way when we picked up the car there was a nice big error message already on it and uh and we were told perfectly fine perfectly fine drive the car nothing wrong with it now to be fair we're not going to put this thing into our full testing regimen until we get that error message taken away it had to do with the steering um it said that there was a steering alignment issue and the first person we talked to with the service center said totally fine we we checked it out it's you're good to go no problem ignore it it'll be gone with a software update then we call Tesla and they say well that shouldn't be there so we're we you know we put all of our cars on the alignment rack we make sure they're all all aligned before we test them we're not going to test a car with an error message but just putting that out there that you know a little bit of half bonness here you know so the Driving Experience when you get in this car it's I liken it to uh you know if if anyone's ever been to another country where they drive on the other side of the road you pick up your rental car and you're driving out of the airport and you're like wait where where where where am I uh and Jake you can maybe explain why that is a couple of reasons right I mean there a couple reason I mean certainly seems very different right I mean you look at the you know glass area it's very very different you got a windshield that's like like a plane of glass but it's it's it's huge you have a quite a panoramic view out but you know to to your point like I'm getting into a different planet or a different you know something I'm not used to honestly if you came out of another Tesla in many ways you're going to feel right at home M so I mean first of all the controls are very similar to what you might experience on a Tesla Model S or a Tesla Model 3 yeah just download those podcasts and listen if you when you learn more about that right but I mean obviously you know there's you know very similar controls you could either love it or you get to hate it there's certainly a learning curve um but I think maybe the most interesting part is how it drives and this is a huge vehicle let's let's let's get that out of the way it is large um it is heavy it doesn't D that way so when you drive around like kind of every day with it I mean first of all it's got a rather small steering wheel you know you'd expect this giant truck is got kind of this big truck driver you know kind of thing it doesn't have that it feels somewhat Nimble despite its large size I mean and part of it is probably because that rever responsiveness it's got tons of power so I mean just it's almost I don't know if Nimble is too much for it but it's like the steering is responsive it's certainly got a lot of power it's kind of I mean as long as you're not in a small area out on the road it it does feel kind of like a a big model 3 yeah so many people have said about it who have driven it yeah yeah let me uh just build up on that a little bit I mean the steering ratio is so unheard of quick I mean it's less than one turn between lock to lock so from one one end of the steering to the other it's less than one turn usually for most car it's about three or two and a half turns lock to lock here it's like it's almost like a race car so it makes the car feel really Nimble at high speed but the the ratio is uh very very variable so depending on all kinds of uh speed and and all so it gives you a response that's not always predictable so it's in like normal Urban Suburban type speeds you find yourself really getting too much Teran in response and so it makes it really easy to clip a corner or worse you know uh uh take out your neighbor's mailbox so you're going to end up on social media someone is filming you parallel park I mean I've seen like tons of these videos you're always being filmed ex but it's the the it's a FP flip side of that nimbleness is that it's not very predictable so it doesn't give you the confidence you want you always have to check yourself you always have to correct something so for those who don't know just want to cut in and say this this vehicle is the first to come out with with a pure steer by wire system so Jake if you want to explain that I just wanted to kind of like break that apart right this is a little bit of a the steering is kind of Dr jel and Mr Mr Hyde because you or or it's like a box of chocolates you don't really know what you're going to get because it is a steer by wire first my first experience with a steer by wire without a redundant system physical connection physical con inity had one with a you know but it's like it's it's variable ratio to the max right so so when you're driving just normally down the road I still it is very very good it feels nimble like a mod the issue is when you start kind of turning more you know in kind of like a parking lot situation or something like that it goes from normal to just really turning the wheels very very quickly because like exactly you said the entire turning doesn't go very far so what happen and there's rear wheel steering and there's rear whe steering so so the issue is is that you might get used to this you're driving down the road it's fine I know what I'm it's like that all sudden you're parking the car or you're coming out of a driveway or you're coming onto the road and you get to a certain point and you have no idea how much you've turned because it very much quickly changes so essentially you know you're coming out of a you know I wouldn't say gas station but a convenience store and you know or a driveway or something and you get onto it and you basically look like an amateur driver because it may turn too much and yeah you could hit uh you know curve or mabox or something I was amazed at how how maneuverable it was in tight spaces because at first I was like oh I can't see anything out of here where am I going where is it and then very quickly you get used to the looking in the side mirror and looking at the at the rear steer and see where it's going and and comparing that to the parking line so that uh that didn't take a whole lot of getting used to well you're you're better driver than I am I'm going to say that because backing up this Beast was one of the most stressful things that I have ever ENC encountered so this has a 360 degree surround camera like like cheap cars right oh absolutely not oh okay it's a lot cameras but yeah I mean I could get a Nissan Sentra and I could see kind of that overhead view here I can't but the problem is that a Nissan Sentra I could look behind me this you really can't see much behind you at all because one you got the little tiny rear viiew mirror it's very very small but the rear glass is very small if the Toro is up it's completely covered MH for my view I pretty much see the road I don't even see the cars behind me it's got a rear camera that goes in the screen but it it almost makes me a little nauseous looking at that watching and you can't really make out the cars behind you and then it's got these big buttresses behind you that blocks a lot of the vision so and it's so cab forward that in even in the front you don't necessarily know where those where the front of theic is you can't tell where the vehicle ends on any part of this vehicle so look I mean a lot of people don't like to back into spots I mean a lot of people don't like to back in the spots they they'll go front end but now you got a vehicle that's huge and they have a vehicle you really can't see behind you and vehicle that you kind of you know have to learn how to steer and if you want to use a supercharger guess what you got to do back in you got to back in probably between two very expensive of cars with people sitting in the cars too so it becomes very very stressful in those type of situations again driving on the highway driving on on the roads pretty nice about the size uh let's just put it in perspective it's about the same length as a regular full-size crew c cap pickup truck or Chevy Suburban and it has a bigger bed than most of the trucks the same size and it has a nice by virt being so C forward yeah that you have a lot of that length in in to the benefit of the of the bed yes some of the packaging in this vehicle is actually really impressive um unfortunately some of the packaging and and also the fact that the lack of those cameras which are really really necessary in this vehicle the fact that the cameras don't give you information that's easy to interpret uh make it incredibly difficult to but I'm going to take you on on packaging so so I mean look you look at pickup trucks pickup trucks are unbelievably popular why because they are very very useful they have they're really I mean it it's it's like we've we've designed this form factor of American pickup trucks right and they're kind of the the two boxes like guess three boxes right if you consider the bed box bed and um they're super functional they're super functional there's so much room inside these these vehicles and you look at something like even the the electric versions right the rivan or the the Ford F-150 Lightning you look in the front and there's this huge compartment in the front you look at the rear seats it's huge there's so much room in here this vehicle does not have that much room it does have that front that front compartment very small very small you look in the rear um it's much smaller much less Headroom um you almost have to sit down in the rear seats rather than kind of up with there's really good posture that you see in other pickup trucks and why is that it's because it's function it's it's form first then function later like this car was designed the exterior of this was designed and then it's like these really really smart Engineers tried really really hard try to figure out how to make that design more functional as opposed to the basic pickup truck which is like all right we want room inside what's what's the box that's going to fit that the best yeah if you're going to go to the trouble of remaking the pickup truck because I mean let's be honest I mean nothing significant has been invented in terms of pickup trucks for God knows how many decades so uh here uh I was surprised that I mean you have a bed and a unified bed and cab unlike like many other body on frame pickup trucks where the bid and the cab are two different entities yeah so here you had the perfect opportunity to uh have a a gate between the bed and the cab like the Silverado EV is going to have 20 years ago the Chevy Avalanche if you remember uh that was brilliant because you have the flexibility to extend cargo into the passenger or you can turn into a camper or sleeper so that that's very that's a miss I completely agree I mean that's the kind of innovation I think that we're expecting from a brand new electric pickup truck and rivan I think kind of spoiled us because it's like hey let's rethink certain things the gear tunnel that you have in the rivian you've got certain like you know all these kind of like surprise hey what why not this and have the the camera you know the the flashlights here and there's all these kind of like Innovations and neat things it seems like the Innovation here is like trying to make up for the design you know it's almost like you think about a cell phone right cell phones are rectangular right for a reason it was almost like you know Tim Cook from Apple said we're going to make a triangular cell phone and then you guys design this so This triangle Works without was that a plot of the office it was I think it was an episode of The Office maybe yeah but but yeah it's a it's a different thing it's innovated innovating around a design as opposed to creating a new design around Innovation so something I think we need to talk about because people are talking about this online is this idea of of of issues with the truck so ours showed up there weren't any big panel gaps no parts fell off sure um I will say you know there's that big 50in uh windshield wiper and it has its own unique tires that actually say cyber well they actually say cber trck on on them but they're plli scorpions but they're specially made for the Cyber Tru and this is not something you can just go down to Pep Boys or O'Reilly or AutoZone to pick up at this point we had some issues with a vehicle recently one of our drivers got in to go to work and all of a sudden bunch of error messages popped up on the screen and it's sort of is now feeling like huh is there you know but it's important for folks who haven't who who might not who might be watching this podcast who don't know what Consumer Reports is all about that's not going to go into our reliability score uh these are things that we'll talk about these are experiences we'll talk about but but but you know we're we're going to have that sort of the hive mind of all of the owners of these telling us what that reliability score and and and I'm not the person to talk about that if you want to explain a little more about how we're going to how we're going to deal with this as a unique vehicle because it does have that that drive by wire it has an incredibly unique uh wiring system uh it has it has a unique exterior design by the way the about the tires I mean when I looked at those tires I thought it they were going to be really noisy and they weren't I was pleasantly surprised urised that uh they they weren't emitting that kind of noise that you'd associate with alind and also I'd say that uh in terms of ride Comfort the Cyber truck rides better than the model y yeah I will say though that there is some weird noise there's this sort of electrical wine in it and I don't know if that's ours or if that's particularly when the rear steer is on you hear all kinds of wear and then electric motor noises absolutely but we're going to we're going to wait until we hear owners whining not the car whining before we talk about right yeah I mean let me talk about reliability for for for a sec you know and it's it's it's strange when it comes to Tesla like you know I mean for Consumer Reports we have certain judgments about this this reliability um you know and you probably have heard you may hear more about what other people say the consumer report says about it so I I want to just take the chance of of talking about it so so liability yes it doesn't really matter what happens to our specific vehicle whether that's Problem free or we have a lot of problems with it it all has to do with the survey so every year we have approximately 300,000 vehicles in this survey and we go into it and we look at actual people's um experiences getting into Tesla Tesla is a little bit I don't know to say bipolar but a little bit is because the Tesla Model 3 and the model Y which are their mainstream vehicles are actually Fairly reliable um we we're recommending them um in fact the Tesla Model Y is um a top pick right now um so those are vehicles are quite good the issue is is that the higher trim Vehicles the Tesla Model S the Tesla Model X they continue to have more problems again that's from a lot of people telling us what they have found with their vehicles it isn't us having issues with the it's hundreds of other people having is what's interesting about it too is those s those X um owners they tell us they actually like their cars and they would buy them again and they're happy with them despite the problem but they are having those problems so so I me look on a vehicle like this you're probably not buying it because you think it's going to be the most trouble-free vehicle there's probably other reasons that um that you might be interested in I don't think anyone's sitting at home waiting for the issue with Consumer Reports to show up to say should I buy the Cyber truck reliable I want to find out what consum reports think 80,000 miles out of it um but I was say again to the point here you've got kind of a hi trim vehicle like the S like the X what we found all the time is when there's more stuff new there's more problems with it I don't care if it's Tesla I don't care if it's Toyota and this has a lot of new stuff incredibly new like first time ever used in a production vehicle new sometimes so it's going to be really really interesting it will be but I mean again if you know I would predict that this is probably NE to be the most reliable vehicle and if you're looking for something that's very reliable you might want to look elsewhere and hopefully some of those owners will fill out our questionnaire including the some of the 2 million orders that the Cyber truck has now yeah let's see how many of those convert I will say we need to talk about also what we're going to now that we bought this what we're going to do with it because we're not going to you know there's there's enough people out there putting this through challenges and and and you know filming it doing these things and listen enough this there's enough layoffs in media we don't want to take anyone's job but what are we going to do with this vehicle that's unique to Consumer Reports maybe you can talk us through some of our our testing process because I imagine some folks are aren't necessarily frequent frequent viewers or frequent listeners who are listening to this episode so we're going to put it through exactly the same Regiment of testing and evaluation that we do with every single car so we'll measure of the acceleration and the breaking distances and the and the range uh on on the highway at 70 M hour and uh how easy it is to interact with the with a car in terms of usability uh how easy it is to get in and out of it and uh also we'll do some uh we'll evaluate it uh on our Rock Hill you know it has adjustable suspension it uh theoretically should be able to scale that uh no problem and uh we'll see how comfortable it rides how quiet it is uh Etc so uh of a whole full battery of testing and evaluations and and you know you think about things like emergency handling and or avoidance mve and all these things you know we have this 327 acre uh test facility here we're looking at it right right outside yeah I'm seeing someone take the Honda prologue on it right now and when we do test these vehicles to the limits you know it is on the same surface that all these other vehicles have experienced too so it's not like you know let's go see how it does in this autocross in this parking lot but it's it's a monitor service that we make sure that has consistent coefficient of friction and ambient condition tested by the same people on the same roads at the same speeds on the same surfaces so which I don't think you know other folks really can't do that with this vehicle um so anything else you want to add or well I mean I think there's a lot the one thing about it is you know we talk about the body panels you know I me that's important to talk about I mean I think you know seeing it up front and and really seeing like the sharp edges on that really surprising and you know I mean you look at our vehicle I mean we look at all these new vehicles and we're always you know we got a bunch of people who check it in and who've worked in body shops and you know sometimes you look at paint you're like that paint is not perfect this is not a perfect vehicle no um and you know it'll be interesting to see how the body panels continue to uh change over time oh Tesla says mature mature it says they mature over time which is how I would like to refer refer to my aging process I just I'm just maturing it's just a natural process cast iron skillet you know you have to kind of like season it maybe it needs to be seasoned there there's something like 30 warnings about in the cleaning section about the exterior and it says things like um you know although rust like uh a rust like surface may appear your vehicle is not rusting uh do not take it into a car wash if you must take it to a car wash put it in car wash mode um so this is going to be very I mean I know what it's like to keep my fridge clean and this is imagine your taking your fridge out at 60 miles an hour with bug splattering on it you know right right and we've got a bunch of fingerprints all over it too we'll have to figure out how to clean that it's interesting to see how many people have put wraps on theirs already and the other thing too just little things like uh cleaning the inside of the windshield yeah yeah that's right um because of that windshield is so sloped and that the dashboard is so long I mean it's we're trying to figure out how to clean the inside of the windshield we can't you can't get there from there we had to buy a little extender yeah order to get in there and and clean it but this is going to be an interesting vehicle to live with I think you know we take Vehicles home as well after we're finished with the instrumented tests we lived with them for a while and that's when it's going to be you know you know you know springtime when I'm putting in some plants I'm going to go I'm going to take it to the Garden Center and see what happens if I need to pick up some rocks and some gravel and stuff we'll see what happens uh we're going to tow with it we have folks who have boats who have jet skis who have campers and you know we're going to see what it's like to live with it uh the same way that we've done with the F-150 Lightning which we found out actually wasn't that great of Towing and didn't have that great a range um and we're going to live with this vehicle and and see what it's like and maybe by then there'll be so many on the road that that nobody's pointing anymore we'll update if you want to learn more about it we have a first drive review that's up at cr.org if you sign up for our newsletter we'll we'll keep you updated when we have more information on it we're going to have a ton of of other videos and other social media posts about it as as we have it and then it's going to go into the it's going to go into test and we're going to be very quiet for a while and then all of a sudden we'll have more information so stay tuned and if you have any questions uh about cyber trucks about Tesla about our testing procedure any of that stuff please send it to us we love to we love to answer questions send them to us at talking cars icloud.com another reason to just to send us a question if we use it on the show you're going to get some swag uh which is awesome some CR swag that you can wear places and uh so our first question comes from Phil from Maine your unbiased reviews are what I value most about consumer reports and I love that you remind listeners often that you purchase all the vehicles anonymously but I have to wonder how many different wigs and fake mustache combinations does Mike quinsey own in order to accomplish this isn't your staff recognizable at all the local dealerships when you purchase so many cars each year when you put the consumer reports address as the owner address and a special thank you to whomever on the staff has to go through that car buying process so often well Phil we're answering your question this this week because Gabe shenhar is the the the sort of the man behind the curtain with these and that reminds me I have an assignment of a car that I have to buy and I'm not going to say what it is uh but Gabe but this how does this how does this start and how do we do this uh well of course we have a whole box of fake mustaches and beards and glasses and uh we anyway uh but um you know at first I thought uh people would U really care that Consumer Reports buying car but uh for the most part it's like not even on the radar I mean uh the salespeople want to go through the sale they care about the sale they care about the commission and getting you out the door and it's only a rare case where I I saw oh wow some reports some reports W how about that you know and and got a real kick out of that but uh for the most part it's not even an issue and um now to the question about uh revealing who we are I mean we are the whole process is anonymous the the buyers that I assign to buy cars uh deal with it uh dealers on their own email or uh private phone and let me just say that's actually a good tip for buying a car anyways y start over email and also create another email address because you're going to get a lot of emails you're going to get a ton of marketing material but anyhow you can unsubscribe yeah but uh anyway only at the day of delivery we tell them hey we're consum reports this is how to register the car here is our tax exemption and uh then uh everything goes pretty seamlessly from there yeah I mean the interesting thing is there's you know Wards Automotive which is a consulting firm says you know there there's a huge turnover in the Auto industry 73% turnover every two years so a lot of the salespeople who you're dealing with aren't going to be working at that dealer the next time you go it's just a you know and and there's about 250 dealerships in Connecticut and we live kind of all over the place and you know I you know if you're buying another Honda it may not be the same Honda dealership and and we make sure that we're not going back to the same place honestly think I mean in my recollection the only time there was someone I mean the only concern is like oh I know who you are I think that happened once years ago and it was actually someone who was a salesperson at a different dealer yes which was kind of interesting so so because yeah we could avoid going back to the same dealer but if someone quits and then goes to another dealer and runs into somebody H then we got to go pick another dealer and we got to start over if we we have to do that we've had a few times we've had to pick another dealer if enough people you know I saw you on talking cars all right well we're going to go to Nissan of X but I mean to your point I had a time where I bought a car and it was after we told them consumer reports and they brought me to the fni office afterwards and they said we made a mistake on your paperwork the car cost $1,000 more and you have to buy an extended warranty so obviously they don't care who we are uh they try to rip us off just as much exactly that was a fun that was a fun experience by the way walking Away by the time I got to the car they were running after me and we sold you know the car the car was now you're wearing the free t-shirt we send you yeah they could think you're a secret shopper right just doing a really really bad job yeah uh but in all seriousness if I show up at a car dealership wearing a a that that would be I'd get a talking to at the very least that would be very that would be very uh incompatible with my employment here I think sure yeah um cool all right thanks for the question Phil Kurt with a K has a question thanks for all the info in your in the October 2024 issue of your magazine regarding the safest car only puzzlement for me was the total absence of Subaru models in the list given and then past articles you've praised Subaru for safety features where do they fall down compared to the others you praised uh can I'm going to take that one because I wrote the article and I'm going to tell you through every step of the editorial process on this and there are folks who don't have to do with cars the designers were asking me where are the Subarus everyone was asking where are the Subarus and the answer is if you look in the in in the criteria that we set for you know what makes a car kind of safe off the bat most of the model year 2024 Subaru have optional blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning blind spot warning has been proven to reduce uh collisions and collisions with injuries uh so that's just the reason why why they're not on there the sutera doesn't have uh automatic crash notification for for a a specific period of time automatic crash notification is another proven system that's proven to if you get into a crash that may help save your life so in order to make the list the cars had to have these EST standard on all trims and we only looked at the systems that there was sort of data out there showing that they actually were we safety and it's it's important to look at it on all triends yeah yeah I mean just to to for for people playing the home game you know this was an article specifically about the safest vehicles saying here are the vehicles that basically provide all these safety the latest safety equipment standard mm you know and we really want to make sure that it's standard not that I going to pay extra and you know add leather interior to get this and not everyone gets that safety so um the ones on the list that that you worked on you know they have it all um these are some vehicles that don't and hopefully subar Mak some changes that actually just makes those systems standard like some many other automakers have done yeah and and just to put it out there Kurt if you're looking at a Subaru and you get one with blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning and it it's it it would have been on the list uh so if you're if you're interested in buying a Subaru it's not that there's something about it that's unsafe right it's just saying that you know don't buy that base model that's lacking these features that could keep you from from having a crash and I think there's more to it too that you know really what can help you on the road is not necessarily just the safety features on your car but the safety features that are on the cars around you so you know you might be very safety conscious and want to make sure that you get all these features but if the guy behind you didn't pay for his extra automatic emergency braking whatever and plows into you you're still at risk so it's just important that the fleet gets these features to make you safer as well yeah hurt immunity for for for rear end and and blind spot collisions yeah the the people who don't have safety on their mind are probably the ones who need the safety features most yeah exactly so uh you know keep driving safely out there Kurt and be comfortable with your purchase as long as you know you know what's on there so again uh Kurt and and Phil are going to get some swag and you could too if you send your question to talking cars icloud.com uh and we use it on air so thanks so much for joining us and it was a little bit of a longer episode a little bit of a unique episode hopefully you learned something about the cybertruck hopefully you learned something a little about consumer reports and we'll talk cars again soon\n"