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I picked up the magazine today and the usual contenders* seemed to get the majority of the red circle "Best" picks and the other usual contenders** were clustered with black circles through all the "Worst" picks.
I have no dog in the hunt, I am just curious. I used to think that Asian vehicles were better (mostly back when they actually were better) but nowadays it seems that it depends more on the year and model, not the marque.
If you think that CR is full of it, on what do you base your opinion? Are they biased? Paid off? Incompetent?
Part two: Are there other ranking systems (JD Powers etc) that are more accurate?
* Toyota, Honda, Lexus and the occasional BMW.
** The Big Three and the occasional Volkswagen.
I picked up the magazine today and the usual contenders* seemed to get the majority of the red circle "Best" picks and the other usual contenders** were clustered with black circles through all the "Worst" picks.
I have no dog in the hunt, I am just curious. I used to think that Asian vehicles were better (mostly back when they actually were better) but nowadays it seems that it depends more on the year and model, not the marque.
If you think that CR is full of it, on what do you base your opinion? Are they biased? Paid off? Incompetent?
Part two: Are there other ranking systems (JD Powers etc) that are more accurate?
* Toyota, Honda, Lexus and the occasional BMW.
** The Big Three and the occasional Volkswagen.
Subaru is awesome thats all have to say dude. just know
I stopped considering them a reliable source long ago. If your goal is to have a bland driving appliance, Tom Mutchler will steer you in the right direction (usually Toyota). Everything else gets his withering criticism. He does most of the reviews for CR and is grim and humorless - kind of like an actuary charged with reviewing cars. He rarely takes styling or driving dynamics into account. If it has good outward visibility, a quiet ride and a history of reliability on their site he'll give it a best buy.
If I was buying a new car this year, the Forester could very well be the one. But it would not be because of anything CR had to say. Decades ago I subscribed to Consumer Reports. I had faith in them. Since then I've read too many of their evaluations on items that I know a little about. Garbage. It looks to me like they're simply incompetent. Maybe they know their cars better than they know their consumer electronics, but they get very little respect from me these days.
If we listened to CR we'd have a garage full of Asian cars in stead of two Fords, a Mercury, and a Chrysler since they were supposedly more reliable. All cars are reliable today, aside from a couple of exceptions. I buy what I like, not what some magazine tells me to buy.
CR also has no dog in the hunt. They neither sell nor accept advertising. In fact, they tenaciously prohibit any carmakers or sellers or advertisers to even make reference to their ratings.
If they are being "paid off" that would be a hard secret to keep for 40 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by American Luxury
All cars are reliable today, aside from a couple of exceptions. I buy what I like, not what some magazine tells me to buy.
All cars are reliable only up to a certain engineered lifetime. Every part in every car is designed and made to last a specified lifetime, and the manufacturers know exactly what they are doing.
If any magazines have an interest in telling you what to buy, it will be ones whose existence depends of advertising revenues, and CR is not one of them. Like everything else, if you want to find the truth, follow the money.
I have no way of knowing if CR is fair or not. But if they are not, the big three US automakers certainly have the clout to be able to expose any irregularities in their reporting, and I've never even seen a slightly credible accusation that their reporting data is not objective and statistically reliable.
If we listened to CR we'd have a garage full of Asian cars in stead of two Fords, a Mercury, and a Chrysler since they were supposedly more reliable. All cars are reliable today, aside from a couple of exceptions. I buy what I like, not what some magazine tells me to buy.
Actually Ford has been toping the Asians for quite a while now. Certainly not on all cars, but especially on the bread and butter ones, Fusion for example. Ford still sells plenty of Fix It Again Tony models as well that drag them down to average.
New cars are reliable enough today that it's not that much of a difference. Even if we're talking Chrysler or Land Rover or something like that which people buy because they just don't care, they're still pretty reliable compared to what they were 20-30 years ago. Reliability isn't all THAT important to most people. Maybe if you liked an Accord and a 300 equally, you'd go for the Accord. But how likely is that? Reliability is always going to be balanced against a car that people actually want. The Accord and Camry don't exactly appeal to everyone.
A friend of mine owns an appliance sales & repair shop. 20 years ago, Amana made the majority of microwaves sold in America. They were re-badged, and sold by several other "companies." CR did extensive research on 10 microwaves - 4 of which were the exact same model from Amana, but with different brand names. Big surprise: One Amana microwave (with the Kenmore name on it) ranked as the best one. The other 3 ranked from 4th to 9th.
CR typically describes their methodology for their reviews. I believe they do what they say and reliably report the results.
> If your goal is to have a bland driving appliance, Tom Mutchler will steer you in the right direction (usually Toyota).
If you are an enthusiast there are many better places to get your reviews. If you just want to get to work CR is a good place to start.
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