Consumer Reports Cars: The Essential Guide for Buyers and Owners
COME ON IN AND KICK A SALESMAN OR TWO……….
A Review of Consumer Reports Cars: The Essential Guide for Buyers and Owners
by Rich Cunningham
Many, many eons ago, just after my wife Sue and I were married and setting up house keeping, one of the multitude of details we discussed was a magazine called Consumer Reports. Having just come from 6 years in the US Navy, I was somewhat journalistically challenged and had never heard of this publication. My wife convinced me that it was great for finding out all the details about products in the everyday market place, everything from socks and footwear to food to home appliances, etc., etc. So we became subscribers to this extremely well produced magazine, and gained access to a wealth of information that is to this day invaluable.
For those who may still not have heard of Consumer Reports, they are an independent testing facility that will take every day consumer items and run them through a gauntlet of tests to determine if they do what the manufacturer says they will. They then rank them according to how well they perform, and provide an unbiased evaluation on which is the best product. As I said previously, the amount of products that they evaluate is mind boggling. What impressed me most, being the conscious consumer that I am (or as my wife claims, a penny-pincher who makes Lincoln squeal when handling a penny), was their refusal to take outside advertising. Anyone that can refuse the major dollars that major corporations throw into guerilla marketing strategies of today and survive is okay in my book.
What this build up is leading to is the review of a CD ROM developed by Creative Multimedia of Portland Oregon. The name of the CD is Consumer Reports Cars: The Essential Guide for Buyers and Owners. It is a very well polished product that maintains the Consumer Reports standards of thoroughness and accuracy in the coverage of an item, and does so in a multimedia presentation format. It also communicates the information contained in a well ordered and understandable manner.
The purpose of the program is to communicate the details of automobiles to the everyday consumer, so that when they go into purchase a new or used car, they are armed with the most reliable and up-to-date data about the vehicle they are interested in. It does this in several ways. First, it gives the user a crash course in How To Buy A Car. It is information that most buyers should know but don’t think of when buying a car. While not a crash course in how to negotiate with a car salesman, it does bring out the details that people may not be aware of. It also gives some examples of what the prospective buyer questions should be asking about a car. It is presented in a text format with hyperlinks to related topics in the section.
Then the user is given the option of looking into the database on the vehicles that are on the CD, in alphabetical and model year order, and selecting an individual car to look at. It is then possible to explore the details of in great detail, everything from engine sizes available to optional equipment to colors. If the car under investigation is a used car, it will notify the user if there have been any recalls on the vehicle. I looked at the 1989 Dodge Caravan mini-van that we currently own, and found that the information provided was very detailed, and did reflect the actual vehicle. It also notified me, with words in red letters, that a recall for a defective tail gate latch was issued against the van. This is extremely valuable information to the used car buyer, and one of the strongest points I feel the program has to offer. There is no compromise where safety is concerned. I also sampled an import car by looking for the 1988 Toyota Camry wagon that we own, and found the information there equally as accurate.
There are also sections relating to Car Care and Safety Info. These are maintenance related areas, such as when to change your oil (and why to change it), among other items of interest. It is also set up so that the user can track all relevant information on the vehicles that they own. It is a nice touch to the program, but it’s location doesn’t jump out at the user, and may be hard to find. There is also an explore option, that allows the user to choose, from a table-of-contents-type of menu, various areas of the program to explore. For example, it gives one the option of comparing New Car Test Ratings or New Car Reliability Ratings for any of the 11 different vehicle area tested (small cars, medium cars, mini-vans, etc.). There is also a section for Best Used Sedans Under $10,000.00 that can be useful. Of course, each item can be bookmarked, and later sent to a hard copy printer.
Installation of the program caused some problems. I ran the program under Windows 95, with a Pentium 83mhz Overdrive Processor, 36mb ram, and #9 SFX531 vlb video card, and it literally took 1 hour to do a full 21mb install. At 65% into the Install Shield program starting, it was as if my system was switched out of Turbo and into s-l-o-w mode. I contacted Creative Multimedia and the suggestions I received were to eliminate all running programs except for Windows Explorer. Before I had a chance to try those suggestions out, I had upgraded to a Pentium 75mhz, 32mb ram, and Creative Labs MA202 PCI Graphics Blaster. Installation time was much more realistic, about 5 minutes start to finish. My only guess is there may be some bug with the Pentium Overdrive Processors for 486’s, but I am not sure. I also had an intermittent problem with the audio level changing when I started the program. This happened very infrequently, and was not bothersome. I would also point out that Creative Multimedia has established a toll-free number for Technical Support (800.474.7596). The documentation that I received only related an Oregon 503 area code number, but that has been changed.
Installation problems aside, I am very satisfied with this product. It is essentially a multimedia database for automobile shoppers. It runs very smoothly, and provides the user with valuable information that they need to make an informed decision on the purchase of a product. This is very typical of the articles in Consumer Reports magazine. Now it has transcended the printed media to the multimedia arena, and has lost none of its impact. This is a program that would be great to have and use before heading out to buy a car.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: | Consumer Reports Cars: The Essential Guide for Buyers and Owners |
| Company: | Creative Multimedia |
| Cost: | $39.95 |
System Requirements:
IBM: 486sx/33 or greater, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95; 8mb ram; 7mb hard disk space; 2X CD ROM; 256 color display; SoundBlaster or Windows-compatible sound card
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 3
Educational Value 5
Graphics&Sound 4
Interface 3
Overall Score:
(* 0 rating, 0 votes)
Loading ...
