Nothing automotive evokes more interest than ratings, and frankly, there are so many "best" lists, best-list compilers are beginning to specialize.
There are some 600 different models of motor vehicles out there from which to choose. It can be confusing, so here's how the most recent five see it:"Family Circle," the homemaker's magazine, has pared a list of 140 "family" vehicles down to just 10, from which it promises by October to name one Family Car of the Year. Some 5,000 of its readers will be surveyed by telephone.
For those who cannot wait, the top 10, alphabetically: Chevrolet Astro, Chevy Celebrity, Chevy Corsica, Dodge Caravan, Ford Aerostar, Ford Taurus, Honda Accord, Plymouth Voyager, Pontiac Grand Am and Toyota Camry.
To vote, a family must have at least one child under 18 years and have purchased a 1989 motor vehicle for family use.
Obviously, four minivans and a couple of station wagons have taken precedence over Corvette and the rest of the two-seaters.
Fleet administrators, the people who manage huge fleets of vehicles for major corporations, USX to Rent-A-Wreck, were surveyed by Runzheimer International, the management consultants, and came up with some golden oldies, or should we say, tried-and-proven models?
They, and their ratings, are: Chevy Celebrity 3.8, Chrysler Reliant/Aries 3.7, Ford Taurus 3.6, Ford Tempo 2.5, Chevy Cavalier 2.2, Ford Crown Victoria 1.5, Chevy Caprice 1.2, Ford Escort 0.8, Olds Ciera 0.3, Chevy Chevette 0.0 and Dodge Diplomat 0.0.
The numbers represent how the vehicles rated on a scale of 1 to 10 and reflect a fleet manager's view of the situation.
Not only were there no Bo Dereks, no vehicle rose to a middle-of-the-road 5. And two vehicles, Chevette and Diplomat, made the top 10 with 0.0 ratings, which means they rated less than one-tenth of a point.
Also to be noted: No imports.
Most importantly, fleet people seem to favor models that have been around long enough to have had the glitches worked out, as evidenced by Chrysler's K-cars, Chevy Caprice, Ford Escort and Crown Vic and especially Chevette. All are approaching teenage, and Chevette has been discontinued.
"Motorweek," the public television people, had a go at it, but in specific categories, each preceded by the word "best":
(Best) bargain car, Volkswagen Fox; small car, Honda Civic Sedan; station wagon, Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable; minivan, Plymouth Grand Voyager/Dodge Grand Caravan; sport coupe, Ford Thunderbird Turbo; 5-door hatchback, Merkur Scorpio; domestic 4-door, Eagle Premier; imported 4-door, Volkswagen Jetta; convertible, BMW 325i; luxury, Jaguar XJ6; performance (for the money), Ford Mustang LX 5-liter; performance (price no object), Ferrari Testarossa; multi-purpose vehicle, Jeep Cherokee/Wagoneer.
Buy-Americans are becoming confused, but of the 13 vehicles named by the TV people, only five qualify as genuine, red-blooded American vehicles. Some Civics are made in Ohio, but their "Best U.S. 4-door sedan," Premier, is built in Brampton, Ontario.
"Car and Driver" annually selects - by secret balloting of its editors - its 10 Best.
And the winners are: Acura Legend, Chevy Corvette, Dodge-Plymouth Colt/Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo, Ford Probe, Ford Taurus, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Lincoln Continental, Mitsubishi Eclipse/Plymouth Laser Turbo and Saab 9000 Turbo.
Relatively inexpensive Dodge-Plymouth Colt/Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo and Honda Civic among all those fancy cars should raise some eyebrows.
Colt and Mirage are the same model, one imported by Chrysler and the other by Mitsubishi, which makes both in Japan. Some Accords and some Civics are built in Ohio, the others in Japan, but all by Honda.
Otherwise, Corvette, Taurus and Continental are pure domestics. Legend and the Saab are pure imports.
Ford Probe is assembled by Mazda in its new Flat Rock, Mich., assembly plant. Both Eclipse and Laser are built by Mitsubishi in its new assembly plant in Normal, Ill. In the auto industry (which never did recognize the Canadian border), joint ventures are becoming normal, and nationalities are fading fast.
Naturally, we saved the best for last.
"Consumer Reports" is out with its best: 55 different models, broken down into six categories, selected from 228 current models and too many to list here.
Suffice it to say 28 were Japanese or the products of the Japanese transplants, 18 were built by American manufacturers - here or in Mexico or Korea - and nine were shipped in from Europe.
Which gets us down to what's best for you. With the experts so fractionalized they'd flunk Geography 101, it's obvious that rather than taking someone else's word, it would be best to test drive the cars yourself. But hurry. In only six months the new ones come out.