Reports by Consumers

This consumer reports that car buying is all about trade-offs. Except, maybe, with the Lexus LS430.

Beth from Mutated Monkeys is looking for a car. She commented here that, "If I've learned nothing else today, it's that all of the cars I'm considering have some kind of downside."

She's exactly right. All cars do. Everything is a trade-off: reliability, economy, size, performance, equipment levels, price. So there's always a downside.

If it's big enough, it probably gets bad fuel economy. If it's fast, it probably isn't big. If it's cheap, it likely isn't well-made. And so on. It's a complicated matrix. No auto maker has managed to cover all the points. That would be the perfect car.

Of course, money is the one thing that can be traded-off for gains in all the other areas. Almost always. Some very expensive cars are spacious, fast, reliable, stylish and good in bad weather. Think Lexus LS430, for example. Not my first choice in that segment, but one I've never heard a bad word about.

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Read more from this blogger: Carpundit: In New Cars, Everything's a Trade-Off