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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 Automobile Magazine
Five years ago, when we first drove the Infiniti FX45, its twenty-inch wheels looked so huge and otherworldly that people stopped, stared, and pointed at them. Now, Nissan's new second-generation Murano is available with footwear just as large. It's a measure of how commonplace such plus-size rubber has become that I drove the Murano for 600 miles over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend and didn't notice just how big its wheels were until afterward, when I did a walkaround. Even before the turkey went into the oven, though, I had noticed the Infiniti trickle-down effect in the Murano's cabin, where the handsome center stack looks as if it's straight out of an Infiniti M45. The plastics, the fabrics, and the primary gauges are all a step above the old Murano's as well, even if you'll want to throw the poorly designed cargo cover into a dumpster the first time you try to use it. In general, the new Murano is not a radical departure from the old one, which was a phenomenal success for Nissan. As before, the Murano is based on the Altima platform, which itself was reworked just last year. There's still no third-row seat, which is fine, because the Murano is for people who really want a five-passenger luxury crossover - not a minivan substitute - but who don't want to spend Infiniti or Lexus money. With spiffy new options like heated, power-folding rear seats; a power liftgate; an extra-large glass moonroof; and a 9.3-gig music hard drive, it's not like Murano buyers will feel deprived.  Unless, that is, they are hoping for a measure of sportiness - that's what the Infiniti FX and new EX35 are for. The Murano has decent body control, but it can feel a bit floaty. As for the light steering, the main message it communicates is that it would prefer you drive in a straight line. The brakes are strong, though, ride quality is fine, and the familiar VQ-series V-6 and Nissan's second-generation Xtronic continuously variable transmission ought to get Murano owners to the Nordstrom clearance sale in plenty of time. Yes, that slightly odd CVT thrum reverberates through the vehicle as you mash the accelerator, but the power delivery is smooth, consistent, and very strong. Maybe too strong: we averaged only 19 mpg in mostly freeway driving in our all-wheel-drive test car. Nissan design chief Shiro Nakamura admits that the new Murano is an evolutionary design; given the popularity of the original, its replacement had to be instantly recognizable. Nakamura-san, describing the new Murano's front end as having "a high-technology feeling," points out the projector-beam headlights - four beams on each side - and the "angle strap" center grille that's similar to the Rogue's. He neglects to mention the crooked chrome teeth surrounding the grille, the truncated greenhouse, the loss of the first-generation vehicle's clean lines, the bulbous bumpers, and the ridiculously oversize badging: the overall effect is not pretty. Dubs aside, it seems the Infiniti trickle-down didn't quite reach the Murano design studio.
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