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Do you consider Consumer Reports to be a valid and reliable source of vehicle reliability data? Why or why not?
They're about as objective as you get (but I wish they would survey more than just their subscribers). Far more than the industry rags like C&D, MT, etc. that are half ads and and gushy orgasmic reviews. "Well, the engine fell out but it hugged the road like my first hooker".
CR has been biased against American cars since the 80's. I can't believe that so many cannot see the blatant bias. The language they use when referring to different car companies is a dead giveaway. Say whatever you want, but I will never trust CR.
To CR, if it's American, it's a POS. Period. Their mind is made up before they ever drive it.
I don't see it that way. I've seen them recommend Chevys and Fords and other vehicles I personally wouldn't select. If it seems like they are biased towards Japanese cars, it could very well be that those cars are really better!
CR has been biased against American cars since the 80's. I can't believe that so many cannot see the blatant bias. The language they use when referring to different car companies is a dead giveaway. Say whatever you want, but I will never trust CR.
They don't like what you like so they're biased? You're confusing the message with the messenger. Can you come up with some reason (real or imagined) they would be biased? You think they're getting money under the table from the Japanese?
I have to laugh at all these thoughts on CR. They send out a survey to their members asking them a bunch of questions about the cars they own. CR then compiles that data and reports the cars problems. How can CR be biased in reliabilty if all their info comes from their members? All they are doing is reporting problems!! (Remember the original poster asked about CR's take on reliability ratings.)
All I know is that I have had several American, Asian, and European makes. The problems that I have had with all of them seemed to run hand in hand with the info other CR members reported. Our Toyota Sienna has been perfect for 60,000 miles while our Chrysler vans had AC and transmission problems. Our Oldsmobile Shillouette was soooooo bad that I only kept it for 8 months because NOTHING worked right. The Jeep was a real POS. Kept it for less than a year. Both the Mountaineer and Explorer were acceptable up to about 100,000 miles. The Geo Prizm (really a Toyota Corolla) was no problem. Both the BMW's were problems, but I loved them! So far the Infiniti G35 has been trouble free.
Because their data is collected from subscribers through their annual survey form they send out. Who better to ask than the person who owns and drives a particular make and model.
I have seen some things in CR that didn't seem quite right. For example, they may show engine problems for a '04 Taurus, and then they show no problems for a '05 Taurus, even though both models use the exact same engine.
Their sample is haphazard, not scientific.
I still remember one year they said yes buy Taurus no don't buy Sable or vice versa. Exactly the same vehicles under the skin.
Yet they blew right past this obvious non sequiter with nary a question or comment. Any responsible journalist or reliability assessor would address such discrepancies. But that would open a can of worm that I don't think CR wishes to open.
One should also take note that not everyone is completely honest when filling out surveys. Nor is everyone's definition of "problems" the same.
Unscientific, with a magazine-led pro-Japanese bias, so their data are interesting, sometimes amusing, but hardly definitive.
Nope, that's not the reason. They are biased. When they talk about an American car, it's always something like, "we couldn't find anything wrong, this car is really nice, owner surveys say good things about this car, BUT they used to have problems so we can't recommend this car...blah, blah, blah..." I don't have anything against Foreign cars. My beef is with CR. No, I don't know why they are biased. I am not interested in that. I can tell by the way they write. That's enough evidence for me. YMMV.
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