Consumer Reports editors discount Tesla's potential for slowing climate change

Tesla's Model S is a large, premium all-electric car, but it is dwarfed by some of the behemoths produced by General Motors and other U.S. automakers, such as this gas-guzzling Buick Roadmaster from the 1990s.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The editors of the Consumer Reports have been knocking themselves out in recent years, urging food shoppers to buy chicken raised without harmful antibiotics.

Consumers Union, the magazine's advocacy arm, has even tried to shame Trader Joe's into banishing from its shelves any meat or poultry raised on the growth promotant.

But on other important global issues, such as climate change, and air and noise pollution, the editors of Consumers Reports have failed us completely.

That's the only conclusion consumers can draw from the magazine's unexpected decision this week to drop its recommendation of the zero-emissions Tesla Model S.

Consumer Reports surveyed 1,400 Model S owners -- perhaps 1 in 10 -- who listed "a range of problems" involving "its drivetrain, power and charging equipment, body and sunroof squeaks, rattles and leaks," The New York Times reported.

I've owned a 2015 Model S 60 for more than 6 months, and have experienced none of those problems.

I didn't order a sunroof after hardly using the one in my 2010 Toyota Prius.

The Tesla logo.

Clearing the air

Responding to the survey -- "Tesla's reliability doesn't match its high performance" -- company CEO Elon Musk said "a lot of early production cars" were included, and problems have already been addressed "in new cars."

Musk also noted the magazine has said 97% of owners would buy another Tesla -- the highest satisfaction rating of any car it has ever tested.

Still, the bigger omission is that Consumer Reports still evaluates cars on the basis of their performance, and doesn't give them an environmental rating -- this more than 15 years after the first gas-electric hybrid was brought to the United States.

Reliability problems experienced by a minority of owners are one thing:

What about the potential of a growing number of Teslas and other all-electric cars to slow climate change?

Air and noise pollution also will be eased as more Americans buy EVs.

The fixation of the automotive media, including Consumer Reports, on 0-60 times is ill-suited at a time when many drivers spend a good deal of their day in horrendous traffic, choking on fumes from other vehicles.

The charging port on a Tesla Model S.

Imagine how much quieter our cities and highways will be when EVs rule the road

Tesla's Model S blends the styling of a race car with the luxury and utility of a four-door hatchback.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"Quiet" doesn't begin to describe the experience of owning and driving an all-electric car, especially one with the heft of a Tesla Model S.

Wind noise, tire noise and the sound of hitting irregularities in the road are just about all you'll hear -- unless you're listening to your favorite jazz or public radio station.

The Model S has a one-speed transmission, so gathering speed is seamless and effortless.

The absence of mechanical noises is truly remarkable -- and just about everything else on the road seems so old fashioned.

Model S drivers are making a splash, not making noise.

Their cars don't smell like all those other vehicles that depend on the antiquated internal combustion engine for locomotion.

The store at Garden State Plaza, a shopping center in Paramus, N.J., can once again sell the Model S directly to the public.

Laughable SUVs

If you want a good laugh when the light changes, put some distance between your Model S and that lead-footed driver in an elephantine SUV trying vainly and noisily to keep up with you.

When EVs rule the road, our cities and highways will be so much quieter than now, and the air will be so much cleaner.

Bad press

For such a revolutionary car, the Model S gets a surprising amount of bad press.

Much of it appears to be generated by media upset that California-based Tesla Motors doesn't advertise, denying them many millions of dollars in revenue.

Other automakers inflate the prices of their vehicles to cover their considerable marketing and advertising budgets, including all those dealer ads that appear in newspapers.

And every time gas falls below $3 a gallon, writers fall all over themselves warning consumers that gas-electric hybrids and EVs aren't worth the extra cost.

But what they always ignore is how green cars benefit the environment, and the pure pleasure of owning one.

Hybrid owners know low gasoline prices are already hurting the environment

A price sign at a gasoline station in Teaneck, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In more than a decade of driving three Toyota Prius hybrids, I've never bothered looking for the cheapest gasoline.

When you are getting more than 40 mpg around town and more than 50 mpg on the highway, 10 cents a gallon one way or another doesn't really matter.

Now, with a gallon of regular below $2, SUV owners are driving more and not even thinking of trading in their gas guzzlers on something more efficient, aggravating air pollution.

All the gains in cleaner air from millions of hybrid cars are being eroded.

"Low emissions, high hopes" were the words that appeared on a Prius showroom catalog in 2004.

57 mpg in a Prius

I brought home my first Prius in March 2004, when regular was selling for $1.63.9 a gallon at a Mobil station on Route 4 in Englewood.

In July 2004, I got 57.1 mpg on a highway trip to Lorain, Ohio.

I tried many brands of gasoline, but always from the majors, and settled on Citgo and then Shell as giving me the best mileage.

By February 2007, I was paying $2.09.9 a gallon for regular from a Citgo station in Bogota, and in June of that year, a gallon of regular at a Teaneck Shell station had shot up to $3.98.9.