TTAC Podcast: The Best and Worst Cars with Jake Fisher of Consumer Reports

by Tim Healey

Published: January 19th, 2024

ttac podcast the best and worst cars with jake fisher of consumer reports

We're doubling up this week after the tech issues we faced last week.

We sat down with Jake Fisher, the Senior Director of Auto Testing at Consumer Reports, to talk about their best and worst cars of 2023.

And our best and worst, of course.

Click here to check it out and listen in, and don't forget to check out CR's podcast, called TalkingCars, here.

Thanks for listening!

[Image: Honda]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 27 comments

Probert on Jan 21, 2024
A BEV is about 400% more efficient than an ICE car and gets around 110 - 120 egmp on the EV cycle. ICE is about 20-25% efficient (about 1 in 5 gallons of gas are actually use for propulsion, the rest is lost in heat and noise), and a BEV is around 90% efficient. On the highway, even at its most inefficient, a BEV is much much more efficient than ICE.

2 Reply
- Ajla on Jan 21, 2024
  There are some nonhybrid ICE engines that achieve thermal efficiency in the 40% range now but that isn't a match for the 80%+(?) that a BEV can manage. Assuming similar size class and output, there doesn't seem to be much efficiency gains on the highway comparing a hybrid to a conventional ICE. There are efficiency gains comparing a BEV to either a hybrid or conventional ICE.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Jan 21, 2024
  "gets around 110 - 120 egmp on the EV cycle." Not sure what "egmp" is other than Hyundai's name for its BEV platform but according to this J.D. there's a bit of fraud going on with BEV mileage. In case of paywall: "In all of these cases, regulators punished carmakers that had cut corners and misled the public. But when it comes to electric cars, the government has a cheating scandal of its own. That scandal, grabbing far fewer headlines, is buried deep in the Federal Register—on page 36,987 of volume 65.When carmakers test gasoline-powered vehicles for compliance with the Transportation Department’s fuel-efficiency rules, they must use real values measured in a laboratory. By contrast, under an Energy Department rule, carmakers can arbitrarily multiply the efficiency of electric cars by 6.67. This means that although a 2022 Tesla Model Y tests at the equivalent of about 65 miles per gallon in a laboratory (roughly the same as a hybrid), it is counted as having an absurdly high compliance value of 430 mpg. That number has no basis in reality or law. For exaggerating electric-car efficiency, the government rewards carmakers with compliance credits they can trade for cash. Economists estimate these credits could be worth billions: a vast cross-subsidy invented by bureaucrats and paid for by every person who buys a new gasoline-powered car." In the legal word an attorney isn't going to publish anything negative which cannot be corroborated by evidence else they leave themselves open to libel, among other things. So, two different playbooks one grounded in some kind of science and the other fantasy.
  
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Pig_Iron on Jan 22, 2024
If he worked for Sports Illustrated instead of ConReps, his name would be Fake Jisher. 😉

Like Reply
- Grein002 on Jan 22, 2024
  If he worked for Sports Illustrated, he would be unemployed.https://deadline.com/2024/01/sports-illustrated-staff-layoff-authenic-brands-arena-group-1235797884/
  
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Recent Comments

Peter Buying an EV from Toyota is like buying a Bible from Donald Trump. Don’t be surprised if some very important parts are left out.
Sheila I have a 2016 Kia Sorento that just threw a rod out of the engine case. Filed a claim for new engine and was denied…..due to a loop hole that was included in the Class Action Engine Settlement so Hyundai and Kia would be able to deny a large percentage of cars with prematurely failed engines. It’s called the KSDS Improvement Campaign. Ever hear of such a thing? It’s not even a Recall, although they know these engines are very dangerous. As unknowing consumers load themselves and kids in them everyday. Are their any new Class Action Lawsuits that anyone knows of?
Alan Well, it will take 30 years to fix Nissan up after the Renault Alliance reduced Nissan to a paltry mess.I think Nissan will eventually improve.
Alan This will be overpriced for what it offers.I think the "Western" auto manufacturers rip off the consumer with the Thai and Chinese made vehicles.A Chinese made Model 3 in Australia is over $70k AUD(for 1995 $45k USD) which is far more expensive than a similar Chinesium EV of equal or better quality and loaded with goodies.Chinese pickups are $20k to $30k cheaper than Thai built pickups from Ford and the Japanese brands. Who's ripping who off?
Alan Years ago Jack Baruth held a "competition" for a piece from the B&B on the oddest pickup story (or something like that). I think 5 people were awarded the prizes.I never received mine, something about being in Australia. If TTAC is global how do you offer prizes to those overseas or are we omitted on the sly from competing?In the end I lost significant respect for Baruth.