Report: Most Reliable New Cars
Toyota Motor Corp. unveils the latest model of its flagship Prius hybrid car in Tokyo on Nov. 16, 2022. (Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images)
We had a lot of discussions this morning with Joel and Maryann in the Morning about cars. Big cars, small cars, fun cars, cool cars, old cars, new cars, and our favorite cars. Just about all of us can recall one particular car that we absolutely loved. It usually starts off with “I had a great car that…” and is followed by praise for a car that never, ever broke down, lasted 200 thousand miles, and caused significant heartbreak and sadness when it finally went to auto heaven. For me, it was a 1986 Buick Regal which was the only Buick I’ve ever owned. Read on for the actual Buick reliability rating.
Consumer Reports just released their annual rankings of the most reliable 2022 and 2023 cars, SUVs, and light trucks. Based on their study it appears that hybrids are the best bets, “most hybrids have the reliability that is as good as or better than their non-hybrid counterparts.” The nonprofit independent product testing firm ranks the Toyota Corolla Hybrid as the most reliable car model, followed by the Lexus GX, Mini Cooper, Toyota Prius, which is a hybrid, and the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Consumer Reports says Japanese carmakers turn out the most reliable brands with Toyota first, followed by Toyota-owned Lexus at number two, BMW is third, at four Mazda, and then Honda taking the fifth spot. Lincoln is the most reliable American brand at number ten and Buick is number eleven (I assume this excludes my long-gone baby blue 1986 Buick Regal). The Lincoln Corsair is the most reliable American car model.
The report also says, “EVs have had high rates of problems with infotainment system display screens and other in-car electronics, just as many conventional models do…this year, issues with those systems remain, while problems specifically with EV-related components are now being reported.”
And what about pickups? CR reports, “Pickups have been at the lower end of our reliability ratings for six of the past seven years. Only seven of the 17 models in the survey have average or better reliability.”
Go here for the full report.
New Jersey Ranked Amongst Healthiest States Heading Into The Holidays
New Jerseyans can afford to add a little extra turkey to their Thanksgiving plate this year. According to a new report, per Life Extension, residents in the Garden State are amongst the healthiest across the nation heading into the holiday season. However, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still be concerned about your health despite daily exercise, healthy eating habits, and stress levels. With the holiday season approaching, there is always an increase in unhealthy eating habits, excessive drinking, spikes in stress, and extra exposure to germs due to traveling over the break. Our neighboring state, New York was used in a study that was shown to have emergency room visits increase during the holiday season, with New York City doctors estimating a 5-12% spike for this year. Life Extension also showed that preventive behaviors like exercising and eating well also tend to decrease over the holiday break while sales of health supplements were 22.8% lower in December 2021 than they were in January 2022.
In order to find out which states were the healthiest Life Extension “analyzed eight key metrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spanning nutrition, exercise, smoking, and mental health.”
New Jersey came in at No. 10 as one of the healthiest states in the nation. Life Extension was able to pinpoint key areas in deciding New Jersey resident’s overall health by the categories stated below:
Fruit consumption: The share of adults who say they eat fruit every day
Vegetable consumption: The share of adults who say they eat vegetables every day
Exercise: The share of adults who say they have gotten physical activity in the past month
Health status: The share of adults who say they are in excellent, very good or good health overall
Mental health: The share of adults who say they’ve had no poor mental health days in the past month
Heart disease rate: The share of adults who say they have ever been told they have coronary heart disease
Smoking rate: The share of adults who say they are current smokers
Heavy drinking rate: The share of adults who are considered heavy drinkers, defined as 15 or more drinks per week for men and at least eight drinks per week for women
Take a look at New Jersey’s stats below and see which state got the top spot as the healthiest state:
Please note: Overall score is reported as z-score, or distance from the average.
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
