CHOOSING A CAR
For nearly everyone, the most exciting phase of buying
a new car is deciding which one to go for. But as
you have already seen in this booklet, one needs to
keep the realities in mind. Every year CAR magazine
publishes a multitude of in-depth road tests and countless
more driving impressions.
Additionally, there is our annual Top 12 Best Buys
awards, in which we choose best models in twelve major
vehicle categories. Starting in 2005, we introduced
the authoritative J D Power and Associates Customer
Satisfaction Index study, which should give you a
good idea of what car owners think of the vehicle
or make you are considering.
And finally, because cars do tend to break now and
again, we have our annual parts prices survey. You
can be pretty certain that a vehicle that does well
in all these surveys, tests and awards, will be a
sure bet.
CAR magazine road tests
With a history of scientific road testing that
stretches back to 1957, there is no more comprehensive
and technically accurate road test database in South
Africa than in CAR magazine's archives.
Get your tests!
CARtoday.com is the ideal online resource
to find the car to suit your needs and pocket.
CAR Guide - Based on the information
contained in CAR magazine's respected CAR Guide,
the online facility allows users to search the
new vehicle market by make, model, price and specification.
What's more, the online Guide's search results
are revealed in such a way that users can make
direct comparisons between the performance figures
and specifications of models from different categories
and makes simultaneously.
Galleries and Impressions - CARtoday.com's
New Car Gallery includes launch impressions, prices,
specifications of extended galleries of the latest
vehicles to be launched in South Africa, but also
contains information on hundreds of new vehicle
ranges launched since 2000. The editors at CARtoday.com
give you a no-holds-barred view of dozens of the
latest cars, SUVs, MPVs and pick-ups in the site's
Driving Impressions section.
Get the road tests - Contact
our road test service on roadtests@rsp.co.za to
have road tests from past issues of CAR magazine
faxed or emailed to you at a cost of R20. CARtoday.com's
New Car Guide also offers archived Special Reports
of new vehicle ranges as featured in previous
issues of CAR magazine.
Finance and Insurance - CARtoday.com
provides links to the leading finance houses and
short-term insurance companies, whereby you can
plan for your purchase by calculating your expected
instalment payments, then arrange finance for
your car and request e-quotes to find the insurance
solution to that best suits you and your dependents.
Best tests
 But
what makes CAR's road tests supreme? Our comprehensive
road tests are not just one expert's opinion, but
the reflection of an experienced panel of road testers'
findings.
As a result, the possibility of brand bias is eliminated,
and a more balanced report is presented to the reader.
CAR's road tests are carried out with the latest and
most accurate Racelogic V-Box GPS based testing equipment,
giving us precise readings on speed, acceleration
and instrument accuracy.
And, of course, our fuel index. This figure is a calculated
overall consumption based on the magazine's road test
procedure. Over the years, this index has proved to
be a reliable average value that even enthusiastic
drivers can emulate and is, therefore, a real world
figure.
Being a regular reader of CAR magazine also means
that you will be informed about imminent model changes.
If a car is due for replacement soon, it is likely
that there will be special offers on the model, to
enable a dealer to get rid of his stock. This is called
a car's “run-out” phase. CAR magazine
usually carries driving impressions of new models
well in advance of their local introduction, so keep
an eye out . . .
Learn from others’
experience
The website www.hellopeter.com
gives South African consumers the opportunity to
complain about poor product or service. This site
is worth a look because it also lists the manufacturer/importer's
response or lack of response! In addition you can
refer to the Speak Out section of CAR magazine,
which documents problems with certain vehicles and
the manufacturers' responses.
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