Have you ever thought about cleaning your headlights? If not, you should. There are plenty of headlight cleaning kits out there, and according to Consumer Reports, even the most inexpensive or poorest quality ones can make a difference.

Since drivers are keeping their cars longer, it becomes more important to maintain this older fleet. And one of these maintenance issues is the oxidation that occurs on plastic headlight lenses. Oxidation causes an unsightly haze that reduces headlight illumination, and over time, can build up to become a dangerous problem.

Consumer Reports tried out a series of headlight cleaning kits, all under $25, and found that even the poorest quality kit dramatically improves light output. The kits that Consumer Reports tested included the 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System 29008 ($15), the Fast Brite Auto Headlight Restorer Kit ($17), the Sylvania Headlight Restoration Kit ($21) and the Turtle Wax Headlight Lens Restorer ($9).

After cleaning out the headlight lenses of various cars and testing them again a few weeks later, Consumer Reports found that even the poorest quality kit still made a difference in light output on badly weathered lenses. Sure, there’s some elbow grease involved, but if you’ve got an older car, these kits can really increase headlight brightness, which means you can see clearer in the dark.

After the jump, watch a Consumer Reports video on some helpful headlight cleaning tips.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

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Besides revealing what consumers think about specific vehicle brands based on seven different categories, Consumer Reports‘ latest Brand survey also shows what nameplates they will consider for their next new vehicle.

Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet were recognized as the leaders when it came to purchase intentions for consumers, however, Honda, in fourth place was ranked considerably higher than the rest of the brands on the list. Honda’s strong customer loyalty helped then to achieve their high ranking and like the top three, the customer loyalty factor was registered at more than 50 percent.

Other findings in terms of brand loyalty revealed that Dodge, which had showed gains in recent years, dropped slightly for 2012 to 28 percent from 35, placing it a distant fifth behind Honda.

As for the reason why, the lack of a quality small car at a time when buyers are looking to save their pennies and placing more emphasis on fuel economy and value may be a significant factor. It’ll be interesting to see how the brand fares next time out, once the Dodge Dart has been introduced.

Volkswagen, which is making a huge push to become a dominant player in the volume segment in the US, has seen its purchase intent double in the last few years. Even with the growth VW has achieved, the purchase intent numbers are still low, rated at just under two percent, meaning that for many consumers VW simply isn’t on the radar when it comes to considering a new vehicle.

Another interesting finding from the survey was of those leading Domestic brands that contained trucks in their portfolio. Men were more likely to consider theses brands than women and for example, Ford showed a 19 versus 11 percent bias towards males, with Chevrolet at 15/11. However, Toyota, which also offers trucks, was actually skewered the other way with 16 percent of women (versus 12 percent of men) most likely to consider a new vehicle.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

That’s according to Consumer Reports’ fifth Car Brand Perception Survey, which gauges the perception of different vehicle makes across seven different categories: design, environmental friendliness, performance, quality, safety, technology/innovation and value.

The survey, which was conducted among 2000 adults with at least one vehicle in their household last December, illustrated that the most well-known brands kept their lead, with Toyota, Ford, Honda and Chevrolet rounding out the top four in terms of overall scores, yet other brands edged closer. For example Acura, which ranked twelfth, had a score of 46.8, while BMW, in sixth, scored 69.3 points.

Regarding the survey, CR‘s deputy editor, Jeff Bartlett, said that, “we’ve made [brand] awareness a non-factor, so we’ve equalized it across the brands. So everyone knows Toyota, [but] a few people know Fiat. The question is, of those brands that you’re aware of, which stand as exemplary in each of the seven categories that we’re looking at?”

He also noted that whereas in the past it was easy to differentiate the leaders from the rest in certain aspects, such as Volvo when it came to safety or BMW in terms of performance, in the future, it will be much more difficult for one single brand to stand out, especially as more vehicles are able to do more things better.

While the 2012 Honda Civic has clearly not impressed the staff at Consumer Reports, the same can’t be said for its smaller sibling the Fit.

For the second year in a row, the Honda subcompact has been named as the best value choice when it comes to small cars; it was also judged best value overall from a field of some 200 competitors, high praise indeed.

During its evaluation of finding the year’s best value vehicles, Consumer Reports, tested cars, SUVs and trucks  from a total of 11 different categories. Scores were determined based on a five-year ownership cost of each vehicle, including depreciation, insurance premiums, fuel costs, interest on financing, repairs and maintenance and sales taxes. Consumer Reports also added it’s own road test scores and projected reliability to each tally.

When all was said and done, the Fit emerged as the overall winner in the small car category, followed by the Toyota Prius Hybrid, Volkswagen Golf TDI (manual gearbox), Toyota Corolla and Scion xD. Most of these cars scored twice as high as the average vehicle rating in the value survey, while the Chevy Cruze, which finished last in the small car category, still earned a total  score close to the average overall value of all vehicles tested.

Rik Paul, automotive editor at Consumer Reports, said in regards to the survey, that “a cheap vehicle can wind up costing you more money over time or can be disappointing down the road.  We think real value is what you get for your money.” Indeed.

Despite having faced criticism by hard hitting publications in recent years, Toyota appears to have redeemed itself somewhat with Consumer Reports, at least as far as the 2012 Camry is concerned.

The latest version of Toyota’s best selling mid-size car, which went on sale back in October, was evaluated by CR for it’s February 2012 issue where it drew favorable comments.

Among them was,”the [2012] Camry has a nicer interior, more responsive handling, and better fuel economy than before,” while in another paragraph the magazine remarked that in terms of fuel mileage, “the [Camry] four-cylinder model’s 27 mpg overall ties with the Hyundai Sonata for the best fuel economy among conventional gasoline-powered family sedans.”

The news is no doubt welcomed by Toyota, for since 2007, Consumer Reports has been keeping a scrutinous eye on the automaker’s products following issues it discovered on the Toyota Tundra full-size pickup, the previous generation V6 powered Camry and Lexus GS luxury sedan.

Given that other media reviews of the 2012 Camry so far have tended to be favorable, along with modern America’s attraction to boring cars, there’s every indication that the latest model will help the nameplate retain its position as the best-selling car in the US.

Given that Toyota’s highly publicized recalls and more recent supplier problems caused by natural disasters in Asia  seem to have been largely rectified, it looks like 2012 could shape up to be a much better year for the Japanese automaker than the last three have been.

Read Autoguide’s 2012 Camry Review here.

Just as Honda announced it’ll be refreshing the Civic for next year, hoping everyone will quickly forget about the 2012 model, Consumer Reports goes and gives the 2012 Honda Civic Si a “Recommended” rating in its latest report.

Now let’s keep in mind that Consumer Reports were one of the first outlets to give the 2012 Civic such low ratings. In fact, they reiterated their thoughts on the base model Civic by saying “while other models like the Hyundai Elantra have gotten better after being redesigned, the Honda Civic has dropped so much that now it ranks near the bottom of its category.”

But the base model Civic isn’t the one that sports the 2.4L, 201-hp powerplant. In fact, our review of the Si was favorable – read the review here – and Consumer Reports agrees that the Si offers “terrific acceleration” more low-end torque and a slick-shifting six-speed manual gearbox. As a result, the Si model scored much better than the base model awarding it the Recommended title from Consumer Reports.

Funny enough, the publication still believes that while “the Civic Si has a great powertrain, it needs a better car wrapped around it.”

GALLERY: 2012 Honda Civic Si

Click here to read AutoGuide’s 2012 Civic Si vs. MazdaSpeed3 Shootout

This probably doesn’t come to as a surprise to many – since we’re all guilty of it – but Consumer Reports has taken a poll that reveals 40-percent of American car owners will delay the maintenance of their vehicle due to finances.

More eye-opening is the fact that younger drivers, 18-34 years of age, tend to ignore tires and brake pads. In fact, 21-percent of them admitted to not even paying attention to those items. Of those polled, 22-percent admitted to delaying the manufacturer-recommended minor services, 17-percent postponed replacing wear items while 15-percent could live with dents and other body damage.

The vast majority involved in the poll agreed that a repair bill of $2,000 is considered a serious financial burden and that 25-percent of Americans couldn’t even afford the repair bill. Considering a car is probably the second largest investment an individual makes, it’s surprising to see how low-ranked it is in terms of priority when it comes to maintenance. 44-percent even admitted that delaying the service of their vehicle has degraded the value, safety and reliability of their car.

And the most absurd part of the entire poll? 83-percent said they were confident that their repair shop would do the work properly and for the right price. Oh boy.

Consumer Reports recently compared four luxury sedans in the January issue of the magazine, pitting the Audi A6 against the Infiniti M35h, Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec and Saab 9-5, with the refreshed A6 receiving an overall test score of 93, tying Infiniti’s M37 at the top of the charts. The previous generation A6 had scored a disappointing 79.

For the A6, Consumer Reports raved about how agile, comfortable, quiet and quick the vehicle was. The model tested was a 3.0T Quattro Premium Plus with a supercharged 3.0L powerplant with 310-hp. Consumer Reports was able to get 22-mpg out of the sedan, enjoyed the eight-speed transmission and found braking performance to be very good.

Mercedes-Benz’s E350 BlueTec received top honors for fuel efficiency with 26-mpg, while the M35h received an excellent road test score despite reporting that its power delivery tend to be jerky and abrupt. Consumer Reports also reported that the M35h’s handling and braking wasn’t as brilliant as the M37′s.

Lastly, and probably to no one’s surprise, Saab’s 9-5 was deemed disappointing and seen as a poor value.

Consumer Reports has made allegations against Volkswagen that the company provided press vehicles that were built to a higher standard than versions sold to consumers.

Stories of “ringer” press vehicles are legend in the automotive world – most recently, Ferrari was accused of providing press cars that performed far better than customer cars. Now, the venerable consumer mag, which has made a name for itself by purchasing its own vehicles for road tests, has published photos and descriptions of a few key differences between the 2012 Passat they purchased, and the versions provided by Volkswagen by their press fleet.

The accusations hinge (no pun intended) on two plastic covers for the trunk hinge mechanism (pictured above). A VW press car had the covers installed to hide the bare metal hinges and wiring loom used on the Passat, but the customer cars purchased by CR didn’t have those. As CR’s Jon Linkov notes, if VW was willing to go the extra mile for a set of hinges, other crucial areas, like sound deadening, suspension tuning or engine performance could have been altered as well. Consumer Reports said that they’ve experienced these things before, and that it raises larger issues of impropriety.

[Source: Consumer Reports]

In response to falling quality and criticisms over its MyFord Touch and SYNC info entertainment systems, Ford Motor Company is taking steps to improve the situation.

CEO Alan Mulally has gone on the record stating that the company plans to introduce revised versions of both systems that will be simpler to use and more reliable.

He also says that part of the problem with the existing MyFord Touch and SYNC was quality control during the development process. As a result Ford has taken steps to greatly improve the matter, plus it says that from 2012 onwards, owners of Ford and Lincoln vehicles will also receive a flash drive which they can use to upgrade their existing MyFord Touch and SYNC software to the new, improved version without having to go to their nearest dealer.

And despite teething troubles, Mulally remains convinced that the technology is the way forward;  currently, Ford is working on plans to make it standard on all Lincoln vehicles and incorporated in some 80 percent of Ford branded products by 2014.

He also says that despite the widely publicized criticism leveled at MyFord Touch and SYNC, including comments made by Consumer Reports, which saw the 2011 Ford Edge being dropped from the magazine’s “recommended” list; the systems do have their fans. “For 50 percent of the people [the systems] are part of the decision to buy a car,”  he stated. Mulally also said that some “70 percent of the people that use SYNC and MyFord Touch also recommend it to their friends.”

[Source: Automotive News]