Genuinely instrumented car reviews, wrapped in a funnel that profits from sending you to dealers.
What it's really for A car magazine with real track testing, wrapped in a dealer-lead funnel.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its instrumented test scores, '10Best', and Editors' Choice, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Automakers and dealers pay the most: Hearst Autos explicitly monetizes Car and Driver's audience (about 80% active car shoppers) by generating leads and pushing shoppers onto dealer websites, but ratings come from instrumented testing under a stated editorial firewall, so paying buys traffic and ad presence rather than a higher star score.
Source →- Operating since
- 1955 (71 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money from advertising, automaker/dealer lead generation and data services (via Hearst Autos), and affiliate commerce links, layered on top of its editorial vehicle reviews and rankings.
- What they do
- It publishes ratings, reviews, and awards (a 1-10 score, Editors' Choice, 10Best) for new cars based on its own instrumented track testing and staff road evaluations.
- What to watch for
- The same site that scores the cars is also a lead-generation funnel that profits from sending you to dealers and automakers it reviews, so its shopping tools and ad placements are not as neutral as the editorial scores.
- Composite score
- 3.70 / 5.00 → grade B+
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- The magazine was established in 1955 as Sports Cars Illustrated; in 1961 editor Karl Ludvigsen renamed it Car and Driver. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, which purchased it from Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011, and it operates within the Hearst Autos division alongside Road & Track. Source: Wikipedia - Car and Driver →
- Car and Driver rates vehicles on a 1-to-10 scale against direct competitors, quantifying roughly 200 data points per vehicle (acceleration, handling, comfort, cargo, fuel economy/range, noise) via instrumented tests at its own track plus real-world road evaluations, reviewing about 400 vehicles a year; reviews are 'the sole responsibility of the editorial team and not subject to review by car-company executives, advertisers, or their public relations or marketing departments.' Source: How Car and Driver Rates Vehicles (syndicated on Yahoo Autos) →
- Hearst Autos exec James Tom: 'Our goal is to ultimately get them on to the dealer's website interacting with a dealer... we do have leads we generate from Car and Driver but a good portion of the value is we actually push people into the dealer's website,' leveraging that ~80% of Car and Driver traffic are active car shoppers. Source: CBT News - Hearst Autos Aims to Deliver In-Market Shoppers to Your Website →