Auto satisfaction is the highest it's ever been according to the latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
Historically, complaints about cars used to be the No. 1 category of gripes in my work. Now I can't tell you the last time I got a call asking about lemon laws for a car.
Thankfully, today the auto market is hypercompetitive and we've seen amazing strides in engineering and design. That's led to record satisfaction with what people are driving.
The ACSI tally lists Lincoln as the highest rated brand with an almost unheard of score of 90. If you go back in history not that many years ago, Lincoln typically scored in the low 80s, even hitting a low of 79 at one point.
Following behind in the list you have Lexus, Buick, Subaru, Cadillac, BMW, and Hyundai.
Honda historically does awesome in most customer satisfaction surveys. But ACSI had them mid-pack at about the average. Very unusual.
The lowest score was earned by Chrysler, who have struggled with reputation even though they've been rolling out some exciting products of late.
Are You Happy With Your Car?
Protecting Your Privacy Online
A Wall Street Journal investigation finds websites that target children are much more likely to track your kids' Internet habits than websites that are geared toward adults.
The newspaper tested 50 different websites that are popular with teens and children to see how many cookies each site put on a computer. Among the sites tested were Disney.Go.com, PBSKids.org, Lego.com and Barbie.com.
The 50 sites collectively placed 4,123 cookies on computers. While some cookies can be helpful, many of the particular cookies (aka beacons) identified by The Wall Street Journal are used to track everywhere a child goes and deliver targeted ads.
In essence, these beacons allow marketers to develop dossiers on children and do mischief by targeting your kids with material that may be inappropriate for their age.
I never like to give a problem without a solution. That's why we've put together a guide that explains how to protect your kids on the web, with step-by-step instructions about removing tracker cookies.
Parents have the ultimate responsibility to control and know what their kids are doing on the web. That's why my wife and I insist that there be no TVs or computers in our kids' rooms. The children are only allowed to go online and watch TV in common areas where they can be monitored.
Meanwhile, are you paying attention to the terms of service at websites you use?
Time magazine reports when you agree to create an Instagramaccount, you are agreeing that they have the right to use your private photos in any way. They can even publicly display them! It's all spelled out in the pages and pages of mice type in their terms of service.
Likewise, Facebook's TOS reserves the right to track your activities even after you're no longer on their site. They have right to track every website you visit and tie it to your name and email address for 90 days.
USA Today ran a story spotlighting some photo-sharing alternatives to Instagram when word broke about a policy change that would allow possible commercial use of your photos on the service.
This is an area that calls for caution on your part. Very few people are going to read the TOS mice type, except maybe a newspaper reporter or a lawyer.
That's why I long ago told my daughter anything she posts online can be seen by prying eyes. We need to start treating our web surfing like a party line from the early days of telephone or a message board that can be publicly viewed by anyone.
The privacy you may expect isn't there. Things you may do in a minute can follow you for years if you're not careful.
The Best Money Saving Travel Sites
JD Power has a new ranking of the best travel sites for bargains as decided by you, the traveler!
In first place, we have Booking.com, which is owned by the Priceline people. This site gets almost 400 million unique visitors annually. When you do a hotel search, it shows you the best rate at every hotel.
In second and third place, we have Hotwire.com and Priceline.com. Both are blind booking sites and I book more travel on Priceline than anywhere else, principally for hotels and cars.
The traditional players like Orbitz.com, Expedia.com, and Travelocity.com are all in the middle of the heap.
Two bargain sites for air travel didn't get great scores: CheapoAir.com and CheapTickets.com.
Remember, no one site will offer the best deals all the time. So you've got to shop around.
Meanwhile, two of my favorites, Kayak.com and Mobissimo.com, did not place in the survey.
