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Consumer Reports no longer recommends Honda Civic

Consumer Reports annual Car Reliability Survey is out, and yes, there are some big surprises. First and foremost? The venerable publication no longer recommends the Honda Civic. In fact, aside from the walking-dead CR-Z and limited-release Clarity fuel-cell car, the Civic is the only Honda to miss out on CR's prestigious nod. At the opposite end there's a surprise as well – Toyota and Lexus remain the most reliable brands on the market, but Buick cracked the top three. That's up from seventh last year, and the first time for an American brand to stand on the Consumer Reports podium. Mazda's entire lineup earned Recommended checks as well. Consumer Reports dinged the Civic for its "infuriating" touch-screen radio, lack of driver lumbar adjustability, the limited selection of cars on dealer lots fitted with Honda's popular Sensing system, and the company's decision to offer LaneWatch instead of a full-tilt blind-spot monitoring system. Its score? A lowly 58. The Civic isn't the only surprise drop from CR's Recommended ranks. The Audi A3, Ford F-150, Subaru WRX/STI, and Volkswagen Jetta, GTI, and Passat all lost the Consumer Reports' checkmark. On the flipside, a number of popular vehicles graduated to the Recommended ranks, including the BMW X5, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, and Cruze, Hyundai Santa Fe, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model S. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the hilariously recall-prone Ford Escape getting a Recommended check – considering the popularity of Ford's small crossover, this is likely a coup for the brand, as it puts the Escape on a level playing field with the Recommended Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue. While Ford is probably happy to see CR promote the Escape, the list wasn't as kind for every brand. For example, of the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles catalog, the ancient Chrysler 300 was the only car to score a check – there wasn't a single Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, or Ram on the list. That hurts. FCA isn't alone at the low end, either. GMC, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini, and Mitsubishi don't have a vehicle on CR's list between them, while brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Lincoln, Infiniti, and Cadillac only have a few models each. You can check out Consumer Reports entire reliability roundup, even without a subscription, here.

Missouri Mercedes dealer offering free Smart with every SLS AMG purchase

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT is an exquisite sports car that probably needs no help flying off dealer lots, even with a starting price of almost $200,000, but Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City has come up with an interesting incentive to sweeten the deal. For buyers who purchase a new SLS AMG from dealer stock before the end of the year, the dealership is throwing in a new Smart Fortwo from its inventory at no charge... with a required coupon no less.
In addition to being a great tactic to get a little free press, the spare car also makes sense as an alternative to the SLS, which measures more than 15-feet long - almost twice the length of a Fortwo - and has a 563-horsepower engine that sucks down gas at the rate of 13 miles per gallon in city driving (and even that's provided you don't give in to the devil on your shoulder). Plus, at the end of the day, this really isn't that big of an incentive. Being given a slow-selling $12,490 car for the purchase of a model starting at $199,500 represents about a six percent incentive, which is along the lines of a $1,900 rebate for a $30,000 car.
To get the free Smart, just visit the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Facebook page, redeem the coupon and then go buy yourself a new SLS AMG. Congratulations!

A quirky proposition | 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive First Drive

I want to cruise around with the person who's perfect for the new 2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. The pocketable EV is, as we've said before, more of an accessory than it is practical transportation. I think that the person who wants not only a Smart car but the electric one is a person I'd like to hang out with. This is a fun and quirky little plug-in, and I'm pretty sure that whoever buys one has a combination of a sense of humor and environmentalism I can vibe with. Smart says that it is a pioneer of electric drive vehicles, and that's true to a degree. The brand was conceived as an electric one, so points for history there, but leadership then does not equal leadership now. Just look at the official Smart ED page, which still shows the old model ED, or remember that the the electric model's launch in the US has been delayed. Instead of the promised "late 2016," the ED will now arrive some time in the spring of 2017. The good news is that the car is worth the wait, with a few caveats. If the Fortwo is naturally a city car, the Fortwo ED is a you-better-believe-it a city car. The ED is powered by a 17.6-kWh lithium-ion battery with 17.2 kWh of usable energy. That's good for a whopping 100 miles of range ... but only in Europe where they use the NEDC test cycle. Here in the US, expect to see about 70 or 80 miles from the EPA (The current model, based on the previous-gen Fortwo, gets 68 miles). Given that limitation, this is not the car that wants to wander far from the skyscrapers. You won't either, in one of these, because you'll be having too much fun winning traffic. Zippy on steroids is a fair way to describe the fun acceleration you can get from a Fortwo ED. Sure, the 0-60 time isn't record-breaking (in fact, it's a leisurely 11.5 seconds to get to 62 miles per hour), but the 0-30 time is what matters in the stoplight-to-stoplight sprint (the ED goes zero-to-60 kilometers per hour, or 37 mph, in 4.9 seconds). There's only a tiny an 81-horsepower electric motor that provides 118 pound-feet of torque, but when it's placed over the traction axle in a small and light rear-wheel drive car like this, that's plenty to push your keister into the seat. If you're otherwise going to be maneuvering around delivery trucks and SUVs, at least stomping the accelerator will put a smile on your face. Speaking of fun, the tight, 22.8-foot turning radius is no joke. The first time you experience it, you will utter a word you were not meaning to say.