they charge $30 a year for full access to the CR site.

when I was looking for access, I googled "consumer reports username and password" and found a very helpful public library in Kilgore, Texas. As a service to their citizens, you can go into the library and use their computer to go on the CR website and learn about products you want to buy.

to save the librarians the trouble of remembering the passwords, they posted the username and password on the library's website for all to see.

CR has a neat car-buying area (partnered with TrueCar, who has been advertising on TV a lot lately) where you put in the car you want to buy, and the specific features you want, and they tell you the price you should pay based on your zip code, and link to participating dealers who will honor that price. I saved about $1,500 off the sticker price (which for a hybrid is good) and paid only $150 more than what CR said I should pay.