America's Favorite Car Brands Ranked
New car sales are hitting record levels thanks to cheap gas and low auto loan rates.
U.S. auto sales through June increased 1.5 percent to 8.65 million, outpacing last year’s record volume of 8.5 million sales for the same period. Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Subaru posted increases for the month, while sales were down at General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen.
As sales soar, which car brands do Americans like the most? The Fiscal Times analyzed company ratings from the Temkin Group to rank the public perception of 17 car brands.
TFT’s ranking incorporates the Temkin Group’s experience, customer service, trust and forgiveness ratings for 2016, with greater weight placed on the experience and customer service ratings.
Our analysis finds that the ultra-luxury Mercedes-Benz brand, a division of German company Daimler, tops all others, with No. 1 rankings for customer service, trust and forgiveness. Overall, foreign-made cars do quite well, claiming seven of the top 10 spots.
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5 Luxurious Dorms
Moving into a college dorm used to mean downsizing into a cramped shoebox with at least one roommate and barely enough space for your desk and bed.
In many colleges today, however, teenagers are moving from their parents’ houses into luxurious digs that resemble high-end hotels. Of course, students and their parents are paying for that luxury — room and board at a public four year colleges now costs about $10,000 a year, according to the College Board.
Indulgent dorm rooms are just the latest tool used by colleges competing for students. High-income students, who are more likely to pay full freight at school, are the most highly desired and they’re also more likely to live in the dorms, so colleges are investing. The average new residence hall last year cost $39.3 million, or around $85,000 per bed, according to a 2015 Living on Campus report by College Planning & Management.
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Best TVs for 2016 – and How to Find the Right One
Buying a television these days is a lot more than looking for the right size. There are pixel counts, screen curves and a thicket of acronyms to consider, and the options can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, Consumer Reports has done much of the digging for you and has come up with most important factors to consider when buying a television.
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7 Things You Need to Know About Medical Tourism
Health care has become so expensive in the United States that a growing number of Americans (and their employers) are finding it more cost efficient to fly across the globe for certain medical procedures. The savings are so great — and the quality high enough — that a handful of American insurance companies are now encouraging the practice and covering the travel and treatment costs.
“Medical tourism” was valued at about $439 billion last year in a new report by Visa and Oxford Economics, which projected that it could grow 25 percent a year over the next decade. This year, an estimated 1.4 million Americans will leave the country for a medical procedure, according to Patients Beyond Borders.
In addition to traveling in order to save money, some medical tourists plan trips because they want to have a treatment that’s not approved in the United States or because they’ll have a shorter wait by going abroad.
If you’re considering joining them, here’s what you need to know: