A Winning Loser

Back in the 2012 presidential debates, Mitt Romney -- who fancied himself something of an automotive industry expert, including because his father had been head of American Mothers -- slammed the Obama Administration loan to Tesla by calling the company a "loser."

It's therefore with a bit of whimsy to note that in its current review of the Tesla P65D (which is an all-wheel drive version of the Model S), Consumer Reports magazine was so bowled over by the car that it broke the publication's rating system, getting 103 points out of a possible 100.

Jake Fisher, the head of automotive testing for Comsumer Rpoerts told Bloomberg News in an interview: “This is a glimpse into what we can expect down the line, where we have cars with the performance of supercars and the comfort, convenience and safety features of a luxury car while still being extremely energy efficient.  We haven’t seen all those things before."

Because of the scores being so high, the magazine had to readjust how it weighted several factors.  In acceleration, the Tesla was twice as fast as the competition.  “Once you start getting so ridiculously fast, so ridiculously energy efficient," Fisher added, it didn’t make sense to go linear on those terms anymore.” 

The magazine ended up rounding the score down to 100, since...well, that's the point scale.

On its Buyer Survey, the model topped its category, getting a score of 98 (out of 100), repeating its success of last year, when it got a 99.

In addition, it's worth noting that Tesla's stock has been equally successful.  Last week, on August 26, it rose 8.1 percent to close at $242.99.  Shares have gone up 9.3 percent this year.

But that's not all.  Lest it go overlooked and ignored, back in 2013 this "loser" company wrote a check to the government for $451.8 million, to entirely pay off its loan plus interest.

All of which helps go to explain, at least in small part, why the only actual loser in all this was Mitt Romney.