Buyers Disagree with Consumer Reports Recommendations, Civic, Passat Sales Soar

You may recall Honda’s 2012 Civic comprehensively hammered last year by Consumer Reports. The publication's verdict was such a big blow that Honda decided to speed-up its next redesign and its CEO took responsibility for its poor performance.

One would expect its sales to slump; but instead, they have gotten through the roof. Civic deliveries have increased this year by 40 percent through September, to 234,029 units and Honda’s compact car is on course to regain the segment crown in the U.S. after finishing third last year behind the Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cruze.

This brings up an interesting question: how much does automotive experts’ testing weigh on buyers’ decision when the time comes to buy a new car?

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VW Launches Second Generation of Santana Sedan in China After 30 Years!

In most markets, the lifespan of a new model is about six to eight years - give or take, with a facelift scheduled somewhere in the middle. China, on the other hand, is not your usual car market; or at least it wasn’t for quite a long time.

That’s why the Volkswagen Santana, which was based on the second generation of the Passat, code-named B2, and was launched in the Chinese market in 1982, soldiered on for three decades!

During that period, it sold nearly four million units, which made it one of the most popular cars in the country.

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