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Ford Motor Co.'s Focus and six vehicles made by Asian automakers rejoined Consumer Reports' recommended list after the magazine created a two-tier rating system to better reflect crash-test performance.
The new system has a higher tier of recommended models such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Camry sedan with excellent or very good performance in government and insurer crash tests, the magazine said Thursday. The Focus and the other six are on a lower tier for vehicles that the Yonkers, N.Y.-based magazine rates as good on the tests or that haven't yet been tested.
The change, the first for the list in 13 years, comes after Consumer Reports dropped the seven as recommended models in March, days after publishing its annual auto issue. The cars were dropped because they were among 14 small cars or trucks with the lowest mark on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's side-crash test.
The other vehicles restored to the recommended list are Nissan Motor Co.'s Altima, Hyundai Motor Corp.'s Elantra, Mazda Motor Co.'s Mazda3, Honda Motor Co.'s Element, Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s Outlander and Suzuki Motor Co.'s Grand Vitara/XL-7.
