Consumer Reports – September 2019

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AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Toyota Fixes

Safety Issues

Toyota has announced that

it’s adding a safety feature

to most of its 2020 models to

help prevent deaths from

carbon monoxide poisoning.

Several owners of Toyotas

with keyless ignitions have

died of CO poisoning over

the past decade, including

a Florida couple who

perished in their home after

mistakenly leaving their

2017 Toyota Avalon running

in the garage.

Toyota is also adding a

fix to prevent rollaways

caused when drivers fail

to put their car into Park.

(CR subtracts points from

a vehicle’s Overall Score if

its electronic gear selector

doesn’t have safeguards to

prevent rollaways.)

Several automakers,

including Ford and GM, made

changes to prevent those

kinds of incidents years ago.

RECALL

Ford

Explorer

Ford is recalling 1.2 million

Explorer SUVs built at its

Chicago assembly plant

from May 17, 2010, through Jan.

25, 2017, because a suspension

component can fail. If it does,

drivers may lose some steering

control, raising the risk of a

crash. The automaker says

Explorers that frequently

travel over rough terrain or

pavement are the most likely

to experience this problem.

What to do: Dealerships

will replace the part and align

the rear suspension at no

charge to owners. For more

information, call customer

service at 866-436-7332.

The Ford reference number

for this recall is 19S17.

TIP FROM OUR TEST TRACK

A Fast Way

to Save on Gas

Summer gas prices have been

low, but who doesn’t want to

save even more, especially on

long road trips? The fastest route

to gas savings is to slow down.

We measured gas mileage

while driving at a steady 55, 65,

and 75 mph. The drop in fuel

economy while speeding up

from 55 to 65 was as much as

8 mpg. Increasing the speed

to 75 cut fuel efficiency by an

additional 5 to 7 mpg. Overall,

speeding up from 55 to 75 mph

is like moving from a compact

car to a large SUV.

Average gain in fuel efficiency

(equal to about 7.5 mpg) for

current hybrid vehicles over

the previous generation—an

impressive accomplishment,

especially in only 5 or 6 years.

Source: Consumer Reports Auto Test Center.

ASK OUR EXPERTS

Which SUVs have the best

pedestrian detection systems?

Many vehicles are now being equipped with systems

that alert drivers to pedestrians and automatically

brake to avoid a crash or reduce its severity.

(CR gives points to models that have them as

standard.) The Insurance Institute for Highway

Safety, which recently began testing the systems,

gave the following SUVs a Superior rating.

THE VITAL STATISTIC

20 %

Subaru

Forester

Honda

CR-V

Toyota

RAV4

Volvo

XC40

0

OVERALL

SCORE

0

OVERALL

SCORE

0

OVERALL

(^77) SCORE
0
OVERALL
(^89) SCORE 77 59
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MATTHEW HOLLISTER SEPTEMBER 2019 CR.ORG 53