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A Nobel Winner Ignores Consumer Reports Car Picks: Doron Levin
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The most logical way to find the best car for the money is to study reviews and quality ratings and then go shopping, right?
Follow this sensible prescription and you will no doubt pick a safe, dependable, fuel-efficient Honda or Toyota almost every time. You'll sleep well at night. You'll also be boringly predictable.
Take some lessons from what SPILPs -- Smart People in Leadership Positions -- drive and why. Being of an independent nature, Nobel Prize winners and other leaders in their fields don't always buy what's most expensive, nor do they always select what's obvious, fancy, trendy, highly rated or what surveys recommend.
Nevertheless, SPILPs usually don't do things without a reason. Hence their choices could be a way for automakers to gain a nuanced understanding of what motivates the variegated and unpredictable U.S. automotive market.
Leaders, by definition, don't follow. As such, few in my unscientific sampling own cars from the list of Consumer Reports Top Picks, such as the Honda Accord, Infiniti M35 or Subaru Forester. Some have been driving the same vehicles for several years, passing up the latest models that come with gadgets such as navigation systems.
Top Down
W. Gaston Caperton III, president of the College Board, lives most of the time in New York and keeps a home in West Virginia, where he was governor from 1989 to 1997. In his home state he drives a six-year-old Chrysler Sebring convertible that Edmunds.com, an Internet automotive site, called ``an average- performing ... convertible lost in a sea of higher-caliber vehicles'' and that Consumer Reports roundly panned.
``It's fun, perfect for what I need for the 20 or so days a year I drive it,'' Caperton said.
Another guy who favors convertibles -- but only red ones -- is Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. ``He drives a BMW 3 series,'' said a spokesman. ``It's really more about red and convertible than BMW. He wants to be noticed.''
David Brandon, the chief executive officer of Domino's Pizza Inc., multitasks like crazy. He often is behind the wheel while talking on the phone and searching for addresses. Thus, his wife, Jan, wanted him to drive a car with top safety ratings, excellent navigation system and superior hands-free calling. Her choice: Mercedes S600, which starts at about $140,000.
Room to Spare
For Victor Niederhoffer, a Weston, Connecticut-based hedge- fund manager and former squash champion, ``a car is one of the most beautiful examples of the profusion of resources that the enterprise system has created. It has thousands of parts and is almost as good as the day I bought it.''
Rather than a BMW or Porsche, brands favored by his peer group, Niederhoffer drives a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee with more than 200,000 miles on it. ``I'm a big person. It has lots of room for my tennis rackets and paraphernalia,'' he said.
For daily trips around Fort Gillem and surrounding Forest Park, Georgia -- when he's not in the field -- Lieutenant General Russel Honore, commanding officer of the First U.S. Army, will likely be driving his 1990 Ford F150 pickup truck, with 107,000 miles on the speedometer. On longer trips, he uses a 2006 Jeep Commander because ``it's fun to drive.''
Tierney Remick, a global managing director of Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, said she is ``spoiled by German engineering.'' Remick is about to replace her 3 series BMW with an Audi A6 or a Mercedes E Class. ``The 5 Series BMW didn't have enough leg room for my children, who are tall,'' she said.
Until It Dies
Without having seen his financial statement, I'll speculate that Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel laureate in economics, could afford to drive something more extravagant than a 1992 Buick Skylark, which already has needed one new paint job. ``I'll keep it until it dies,'' he said. Then Solow would like to own a gas- electric hybrid.
My friend Jim Hiller, who owns a chain of grocery stores in southeast Michigan and understands mechanical things, used to drive Audis. He just bought a Cadillac STS ``because I want to support American workers. A GM executive told me that each time you buy a Corvette or a Cadillac three guys get paid for a week.''
Hiller's wife Marge drives a Porsche Cayenne, ``but when the time comes we will replace it with an American vehicle,'' he said.
One who does drive a Top Pick from Consumer Reports is Thomas Wilkins, resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony. He and his wife chose the Honda Odyssey for two reasons: It could accommodate his 13-year-old daughter's harp and because Honda has a reputation for reliability.
After his children grow up, Wilkins wants to own a Volvo convertible ``for the fantastic styling.''
Wilkins is saying something important, particularly for U.S. carmakers. An automobile is like a great sports jacket or dress, a means of expression, a personal statement. SPILPs and other drivers recognize that a car can be much more than a rational purchase decision arrived at by reading Consumer Reports.
To contact the writer of this column:
Doron Levin in Southfield, Michigan at dlevin5@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 15, 2006 00:13 EST
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The most logical way to find the best car for the money is to study reviews and quality ratings and then go shopping, right?
Follow this sensible prescription and you will no doubt pick a safe, dependable, fuel-efficient Honda or Toyota almost every time. You'll sleep well at night. You'll also be boringly predictable.
Take some lessons from what SPILPs -- Smart People in Leadership Positions -- drive and why. Being of an independent nature, Nobel Prize winners and other leaders in their fields don't always buy what's most expensive, nor do they always select what's obvious, fancy, trendy, highly rated or what surveys recommend.
Nevertheless, SPILPs usually don't do things without a reason. Hence their choices could be a way for automakers to gain a nuanced understanding of what motivates the variegated and unpredictable U.S. automotive market.
Leaders, by definition, don't follow. As such, few in my unscientific sampling own cars from the list of Consumer Reports Top Picks, such as the Honda Accord, Infiniti M35 or Subaru Forester. Some have been driving the same vehicles for several years, passing up the latest models that come with gadgets such as navigation systems.
Top Down
W. Gaston Caperton III, president of the College Board, lives most of the time in New York and keeps a home in West Virginia, where he was governor from 1989 to 1997. In his home state he drives a six-year-old Chrysler Sebring convertible that Edmunds.com, an Internet automotive site, called ``an average- performing ... convertible lost in a sea of higher-caliber vehicles'' and that Consumer Reports roundly panned.
``It's fun, perfect for what I need for the 20 or so days a year I drive it,'' Caperton said.
Another guy who favors convertibles -- but only red ones -- is Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. ``He drives a BMW 3 series,'' said a spokesman. ``It's really more about red and convertible than BMW. He wants to be noticed.''
David Brandon, the chief executive officer of Domino's Pizza Inc., multitasks like crazy. He often is behind the wheel while talking on the phone and searching for addresses. Thus, his wife, Jan, wanted him to drive a car with top safety ratings, excellent navigation system and superior hands-free calling. Her choice: Mercedes S600, which starts at about $140,000.
Room to Spare
For Victor Niederhoffer, a Weston, Connecticut-based hedge- fund manager and former squash champion, ``a car is one of the most beautiful examples of the profusion of resources that the enterprise system has created. It has thousands of parts and is almost as good as the day I bought it.''
Rather than a BMW or Porsche, brands favored by his peer group, Niederhoffer drives a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee with more than 200,000 miles on it. ``I'm a big person. It has lots of room for my tennis rackets and paraphernalia,'' he said.
For daily trips around Fort Gillem and surrounding Forest Park, Georgia -- when he's not in the field -- Lieutenant General Russel Honore, commanding officer of the First U.S. Army, will likely be driving his 1990 Ford F150 pickup truck, with 107,000 miles on the speedometer. On longer trips, he uses a 2006 Jeep Commander because ``it's fun to drive.''
Tierney Remick, a global managing director of Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, said she is ``spoiled by German engineering.'' Remick is about to replace her 3 series BMW with an Audi A6 or a Mercedes E Class. ``The 5 Series BMW didn't have enough leg room for my children, who are tall,'' she said.
Until It Dies
Without having seen his financial statement, I'll speculate that Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel laureate in economics, could afford to drive something more extravagant than a 1992 Buick Skylark, which already has needed one new paint job. ``I'll keep it until it dies,'' he said. Then Solow would like to own a gas- electric hybrid.
My friend Jim Hiller, who owns a chain of grocery stores in southeast Michigan and understands mechanical things, used to drive Audis. He just bought a Cadillac STS ``because I want to support American workers. A GM executive told me that each time you buy a Corvette or a Cadillac three guys get paid for a week.''
Hiller's wife Marge drives a Porsche Cayenne, ``but when the time comes we will replace it with an American vehicle,'' he said.
One who does drive a Top Pick from Consumer Reports is Thomas Wilkins, resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony. He and his wife chose the Honda Odyssey for two reasons: It could accommodate his 13-year-old daughter's harp and because Honda has a reputation for reliability.
After his children grow up, Wilkins wants to own a Volvo convertible ``for the fantastic styling.''
Wilkins is saying something important, particularly for U.S. carmakers. An automobile is like a great sports jacket or dress, a means of expression, a personal statement. SPILPs and other drivers recognize that a car can be much more than a rational purchase decision arrived at by reading Consumer Reports.
To contact the writer of this column:
Doron Levin in Southfield, Michigan at dlevin5@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 15, 2006 00:13 EST
There is something rotten here - either you are paid way high or that car is pretty cheap where you live. Here that piece of metal costs in the vicinity of $ 100k.
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