Cato: Consumer Reports has a pricing service here in Canada, but I'm sure not many Canadians know about it. That makes three major players in the pricing service business here in Canada, CR being the most recent to join this game.
Vaughan: Right. We have the APA, the Automobile Protection Agency (www.apa.ca), CarCostCanada (carcostcanada.com) and Consumer Reports. The latter only began selling car prices in Canada in September.
Cato: To little fanfare. I think Consumer Reports does a good job in most cases and certainly the organization is well respected and even feared in some boardrooms. But Consumer Reports relies entirely on the news media to get its message out.
Vaughan: Without compliant reporters, no one would know anything about Consumer Reports.
Jeremy Cato and Michael Vaughan
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Cato: And like most reporters, Consumer Reports does not have a thick skin when it comes to criticism.
I took CR to task a few years ago over one of its conclusions in a rollover case and spent the next 10 days proving my case to editors who assumed that CR was correct in objecting to my story. But CR was wrong and I was right. I was forced to spend a ridiculous amount of time and energy proving my point.
Vaughan: Proving your infallibility once again, Cato.
Cato: Precisely. Okay, to CR. It now offers Canada-specific price and incentive information 10 years after introducing the same in the U.S. Ten years! What on earth took them so long? CR has 300,000 subscribers in Canada. You would think they would have paid some attention to them sooner.
Vaughan: Here's the price of those pricing reports: US$29.95 for one report, US$39.95 for two reports and US$49.95 for four reports. Not free and not exactly cheap, either.
Cato: If you buy, CR says its so-called "Bottom Line Price" includes not just information about what the dealer actually paid for a car - plus all incentives and rebates -- but also reliability data. Go to www.crcanadacars.org for the details.
Vaughan: I went and three deals jumped out, all expiring January 2, 2008. First, the 2008 Saab 9-5, with potential savings of $5,613.
Cato: I looked at these. The '08 Subaru Outback 2.5i is available with discounts totalling up to $4,993 and the '08 Volkswagen Jetta 2.5 is listed with potential savings below MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) that add up to $3,339. The Outback jumps out because of its safety record and Subaru's overall very good quality scores.
Vaughan: Right. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which conducts very, very tough crash tests, rates the Subaru Legacy one of its top safety picks. The Outback, of course, is a gussied up Legacy - a tall station wagon pitched as a sport-utility vehicle.
Cato: CR, by the way, in its most recent quality study, ranks Subaru fourth overall among all car brands. The Subaru brand overall performed 38 per cent better than average in the study. Subaru is a solid above average performer in J.D. Power and Associates three-year vehicle dependability study, too.
Vaughan: Yes, but we are here to focus on deals and the one criticism I hear of Subaru Canada a lot these days is that its prices here are way out of whack with those in the U.S., on a pure dollar exchange basis.
Cato: I hear about this all the time. That explains the discounting we're discussing here and this new pricing guarantee Subaru Canada is offering, also. It boils down to this: If Subaru offers a better deal between now and March, they'll pay today's buyer the difference.
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer
Buyer's Age Range
- 16-34 years: 62.2%
- 35-54 years: 30.0%
- 55+ years: 7.8 %
Gender ratio:
- Female: 35.1%
- Male: 64.9%
Type of sale
- Cash: 16.2% (includes non-dealer financing)
- Finance: 72.9%
- Lease: 10.9%
Most popular colours:
- Grey
- Red
- Blue
- Black
Price: $23,209 plus taxes, license, title fees
Days to turn: 21
Trade ins: 25% (Lease returns are not included in this measure)
Top models traded in: Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer, Mazda Protége
Average monthly payments:
- Lease @ 48 months: $385 (includes PST, GST)
- Finance @ 60 months: $419
Source: Power Information Network
