Cars finally get ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ type rankings of their own

Car buyers are returning to the show rooms in droves, with
new car sales up 30 percent over last year.

But with so many different ratings and rankings online
and in print, it’s been tough to find comprehensive
ratings that give you a much broader perspective.

Former Edmunds editor Karl Brauer grew tired of trying to
wade through all the different stars, rankings and other
way reviewers compared cars. So he created Total
Car Score.com Much like the model pioneered by
RottenTomatoes.com. Rather than doing its own reviews, his site
combines results from dozens of others to help come up
with a much broader perspective.

“They go to one site and they know what the whole industry
as a combined score thinks of the vehicle,” says Brauer.

Total Car Score also lets you come up with your own
customized ranking based on preferences ranging from
comfort, to safety, to performance, for a single, simple
number making it easy to compare.

And in its first annual awards just released, Brauer says
surprisingly Ford took the top spot in five of the 20
categories, when just several years ago there were doubts
any U.S. car maker would even survive.

“You know, they’ve got things like the new Focus which is
drastically improved over the previous version. They’ve
got the Ford Flex which actually has been a a pretty well
rated large SUV for awhile. I think more people need to
give that car a chance.”

Cadillac, Mercedes Benz, Toyota and Volkswagen all scored
high as well with three winners each. Brauer says the
Lexus LS, Hyundai Sonata and Infiniti M were the top three
cars in the ratings.

But he says ultimately buying a car is so personal, your
own comfort both physical and emotional is most important.

“That doesn’t just mean the seat comfort and the position
of the controls, although those are hugely important too,
but literally comfortable in what the car is, how easy is
it to drive, to park, to see out of. These are things people
need to really try out before they commit to buying a car
given the kind of money you spend,” Brauer says.

Brauer says one of the most noticeable changes for new car
buyers is dramatic improvement in fuel efficiency for even
larger cars. He says that means people don’t have to
to drive a tiny car just to get good gas mileage.

Speaking of gas, he says don’t expect to see an explosion
of electric cars despite increasing attention, because the
premium people have to pay doesn’t pencil out compared to
the cost of gas.