Conducting Your Own Consumer Comparison Test

In our ongoing effort to empower automotive consumers, we've come up with a new way to conduct a comparison test. Our second Consumer Comparison Test once again takes six regular Americans from different places and different stages of life and ask them to evaluate three cars -- this time economy sedans.

While you can read and watch for yourself these consumers' enlightening observations and conclusions, I thought I'd share some ways to translate their experiences into useful real-world car buying. One of the questions we asked our testers at the end of the day was "How will this experience change the way you go about car shopping?"

I thought Anne Adams' was particularly apt.

"I'm definitely going to be more critical," she said. "Having a template to work from really helped think about various features and functionalities. So I'm definitely not falling for the first car I get into. Pay close attention to the details and it'll be definitely beneficial."

In that spirit, here's some strategies to conduct your own consumer comparison test when shopping for a car. Most of them simply involve planning ahead.

1) Pick Your Cars and Chart a Course
After identifying your automotive needs and researching which vehicles might meet them here on Edmunds.com (wink wink), figure out where each dealership is located and plan out your day. Call ahead and make appointments so that you can establish a relationship with the dealer before hand and they should (theoretically) have what you're looking for available for test drive when you arrive.

2) Utilize an Automall
This may not be possible for everyone, but even if you don't end up buying a car at the automall, having a high number of dealerships in the same area is highly beneficial for your own consumer test drive. Not only does this make your day shorter by limiting travel time, it makes the next step a lot easier.

3) Chart Out a Driving Loop
The salesman might not like this, but too bad. Following the same driving loop for every car you drive is highly beneficial because you're driving them in roughly the same conditions. Nothing is given an unintentional advantage. Make sure you get in a mix of city and some highway driving, or whatever type of driving you do regularly. Even if you can't drive them in the same places, charting out your driving loop before hand does allow you to drive the car on your own terms. Having said that, don't go for some ridiculous long test drive or drive like a maniac -- respect your salesperson and they're more likely to respect you.

4) Poke and Prod
Make a check list of important interior attributes, and like our consumer testers, rate each car on these attributes. Sit in each car for a long time, touching surfaces, pressing buttons and getting a true feel. Sit in the back seat, bring some golf clubs along to put in the trunk or a kid's seat to put in the back. You might look ridiculous and the salesman may be annoyed, but who cares? You're a real-world consumer comparison tester.

Obviously you can't take a Civic out onto Willow Springs or conduct a series of panic stops in a Corolla. But conducting some semblance of these consumers' tests is possible if you plan ahead and have some patience. If you want to make a fully informed decision, it'll definitely be worth it.

James Riswick, Automotive Editor 

Posted by

JRiz June 4, 2008, 10:14 AM

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