Consumer Reports articles from June 2003

Consumer Reports archives from June 2003

Your letters.(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... Honk if you love... The "Trendsetters" article in your 50th Anniversary Auto Issue was a blissful road trip to nostalgia land. The first car I bought with money I'd earned myself was a 1959 VW Beetle. I paid $100. On that car, I learned...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2003... In the March report on mutual funds, we published incorrect annualized returns for the two socially conscious funds we rated. They should have been as follows: Ariel: 3-year, 11.7 percent; 5-year, 7.6 percent. Neuberger Berman Socially...

The battle for privacy begins. (Test Inform Protect).
June 1, 2003... The balance in your checking account. Your income. The amount of equity you have in your home. The size of your car loan. How much wine and alcohol you bought with credit cards. You wouldn't dream of revealing such information to anyone but...

Staying healthy. (Memo to members).
June 1, 2003... "CU takes this occasion to report that the use of blackstrap molasses as a part of the human diet seems to be on the wane. The evidence is that the sticky tide is receding as more and more users realize that, despite the claims of its ardent...

411 on SMS. No LOL. OK? * (Keeping in Touch).(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Cell phones aren't just for live chats anymore. Short-messaging service-missives of 25 words or less, painstakingly tapped in using the phone's keypad-is all the rage. Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless carrier, says that the...

How to warm a chilly patio. (Product test).(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... One of the nicest features of spring: warm, sunny days followed by cool, crisp evenings. One of the nastiest features of spring if you like to entertain and eat outdoors: warm, sunny days followed by cool, crisp evenings. An outdoor patio...

The never-ending dishwasher recall. (Product Safety).
June 1, 2003... The latest chapter in the recall saga of some General Electric and Hotpoint dishwashers centers on four lawsuits. Their outcome may well affect consumers nationwide. Here are the details: Full restitution in New York. In February, a New...

A shaky source of emergency light. (Product Test).(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... Looking for a flashlight in the dark often means stumbling, fumbling, and ultimately finding that the batteries are dead. The Forever Flashlight doesn't use batteries. It is designed to generate an electrical charge when you shake it, providing...

Bicycles for the road.(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Bicycling certainly draws a crowd. More than 15 million devotees average a ride at least once a week, and close to 60 million take a bike ride at least once a year. One reason: Cycling is an enjoyable way to get a good, low-impact...

Best values in treadmills.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... More than 10 million Americans hop onto a treadmill every few days, making it one of the most widely used pieces of exercise equipment. Perhaps that's because a treadmill can be used day or night, rain or shine. Or perhaps it's because it's so...

12 Ways you can prevent injuries.
June 1, 2003... STARTING UP 1. Stretch. Stretching may not directly reduce injury. But it makes exercise more tolerable and less painful by increasing your range of motion. Besides, stretching feels good. Use a slow, sustained stretch for each muscle...

Heart-rate monitors.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... A heart-rate monitor eliminates guesswork if you're exercising to improve your cardiac fitness. You can quickly check your heart rate or get a signal when your pulse is outside a predetermined range. The typical monitor costs $80 or so. It...

Energy bars, unwrapped.(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Created to fuel endurance athletes, energy bars have morphed into a confusing array of varieties: protein bars, cereal bars, snack bars, "nutrition for women" bars, and bars aimed at dieters of every persuasion, from low fat to low carb....

Blood-pressure monitors.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... We tested 16 monitors and found that automatic arm models worked best; most wrist models lagged way behind. There's a virtual epidemic of hypertension, or high blood pressure, in the U.S., and treatment efforts are falling woefully short....

It's Mickey vs. Shamu. (Amusement Parks: Survey).(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Sit back and hold on tight. Here are CR's first Ratings of America's theme parks, plus how to save hundreds of dollars and avoid mobs of Mouseketeers. Last year, 320 million visitors rolled and twisted, strolled and sat through more than 3...

Gas grills: the 25 in this test include 3 CR Best Buys that cost as little as $200.(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... You don't have to spend top dollar for a gas grill that sizzles. While three in this report cost more than $1,000, the top-scoring Jenn-Air JA46OP costs $600. And one of three CR Best Buys comes in at just $200-roughly the price most people pay...

Lawn tractors: some of the best of these 24 wide-mowing machines are now available at large retail stores. (Lawn Tractors: Test).(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... You'd expect to find top-performing lawn tractors at independent dealers, where power-equipment manufacturers have historically showcased their premium products. Now you'll also find them at large, high-volume retailers like The Home Depot,...

Budget desktops.(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... When choosing an under-$1,000 computer, brand reliability and support may well be the deciding factors. Is a low-cost computer, typically selling for $500 to $700, a true bargain? Or do computers so inexpensive entail so many compromises...

Deciding on a display. (Computer Monitors: Test).(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... Should your next computer display be a TV-style CRT or flat-panel LCD? We found three standout CRTs and five LCDs. THE TOP-RATED ViewSonic A90f+,, above, and Apple Studio Display, at right. Deciding on whether to buy a flat-panel...

On-the-go directions.(Buyers Guide)
June 1, 2003... For less than $1,000, you can buy a portable navigation unit with most of the features of a $2,000 in-dash system. Portable navigation systems for cars have come a long way in the four years since we last tested them. In features and...

Economical versatility.(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2003... The Honda Element is turning heads, but the freshened Subaru Forester is our new top pick. With several improvements for 2003, the Subaru Forester just edged out the Toyota RAV4 as our highest scoring small sport-utility vehicle. This...

Soured on yogurt. (Selling it).
June 1, 2003... Many readers noticed that cups of Dannon yogurt had been downsized 25 percent, from 8 ounces (left) to 6 ounces (right). Although a Dannon customer representative told us the company suggested that retailers cut the price, the two cups cost the...

But sometimes rotate. (Selling it).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... An Oregon couple bought a Spring Air NeverTurn Mattress in part because of its name. Imagine how happy they were to open the care guide and find the diagram above, with these instructions: "Rotate your mattress every two weeks for the first six...

No big deal. (Selling it).
June 1, 2003... "Perfect for small print or examining small objects," this package says. And there's some small print, which seems to have been greatly enlarged under the magnifying glass. What you might not know, until you open the package, is that the type...

Slim Jim. (Selling it).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Behold MESO-Tech James (heftier than before) and Hydroxycut James (thinner). Someone should tell James that it's not healthy for his weight to fluctuate so much. The photos appeared in the same issue of Men's Fitness. (We're not sure if it's...