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IntelliChoice Value Rating
The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.
One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.
What is a good car value?
A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.
But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?
For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.
This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)
Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.
Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.
So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.
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Review From Motor Trend Magazine
2006 Honda Ridgeline - Road Test & Review - Motor Trend
A truck for people who hate them: The truck that changes everything--or does it?
By Chris Walton
Photography by John Kiewicz
With so-called segment- busting vehicles sprouting up everywhere and niches created daily, Honda is betting that the Ridgeline--an urban truck with sport/utility tendencies--is exactly what you need, no more and no less. It's the result of a concept researched and designed by Honda, with people, toys, and flat-box furniture buyers in mind who'd never consider buying a truck. Do such urban-truck buyers exist? Are they this rational? So much for philosophy, let's look at the hardware. On paper, the Ridgeline meets or exceeds many of its closest, medium-size four-door pickup competitors' capabilities--it even outdoes some full-size trucks. It'll carry just over 1500 pounds of cargo in the steel-reinforced composite bed. Its 255-horse V-6 and all-wheel drive can tow up to 5000 pounds. There's no V-8 available, nor is there a low-range 4WD transfer case. The bed width (wheel well-to-well) is greater than the magic 48-inch plywood number by an inch and a half, but is only 60.0 inches long with the two-way tailgate closed (79.0 inches lowered). But that's only where the Ridgeline begins to address cargo.  Unlike Chevy's Avalanche or Subaru's Baja, the Ridgeline doesn't have a fold-down bulkhead to make use of indoor/outdoor cargo space. Instead, Honda has introduced an innovative, watertight (though drainable), locking In-Bed Trunk beneath the pickup bed, with a volume of 8.5 cubic feet--not counting the space where the spare wheel resides. It's a nifty and unexpected trick, but could be a problem if a cooler is secreted away under a mound of camping gear--or if a tire needs changing when you've got a bed full of gardening or building material.
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If the folks at Honda have it their way, every garage in America would contain two CR250R dirt bikes, an AquaTrax watercraft, a Honda generator, and a new Ridgeline to tote them around.
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Fleet Update: 2006 Honda Ridgeline RTL
In this month's edition of "Honda Ridgeline Goes to (fill in the blank)," we find associate editor Brian Vance taking off to Flagstaff, Arizona, for camping and camaraderie.
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