Your inside track for new and used vehicles.

To get the right car at the best price you need to do your research. But how do you determine the quality of your information? More people turn to CONSUMER REPORTS for car-buying advice than any other publication or Web site. That's because Consumer Reports, published by the nonprofit, independent Consumers Union, holds a special place in the world of auto information.

* CR is the only publication that buys its own test vehicles anonymously. We put them through the most comprehensive auto-testing program of any U.S. publication or Web site at our 327-acre Auto Test Center. More than 50 tests and evaluations are performed on every vehicle.

* CR does not accept advertising, so we don't have to pull punches in our Ratings, reviews, and safety reporting. Unlike other publications that must placate advertisers, we tell you which vehicles are the best and which are the worst.

This 80-page section is structured to be your all-in-one guide to buying a vehicle. Starting off on page 147, we detail our 5 Steps to Get the Right Car at the Best Price. Buying a car can be thrilling and terrifying at the same time, but following these five easy steps can take the advantage out of the salesperson's hands and put you in charge of the buying and negotiating process.

Turn to page 157 to see which vehicles, among the 228 we recently ...