Originally posted by: Accipiter22
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Sorry but Consumer Reports is the last place I would use to rate cars/trucks. They have proven to be flawed and biased many times.
link to proof? I see people say that, but the ratings come from actual consumers, and they're non-profit so they're not influenced by ad dollars.
Their ratings come from their opinions and people that subscribe to their magazines. They do not survey the general public/owners. Their "surveys" are flawed and are not scientific.
Heres a old one...
"Since 1988, when Consumer Reports published a review of the Suzuki Samurai rating it as "not acceptable", the two groups have met off and on in court. This week, the federal appeals court in San Francisco allowed a product disparagement case brought by Suzuki against Consumer Reports to proceed to trial, according to The New York Times. Eleven judges dissented from the decision calling it the "death of consumer ratings."
The case had been dismissed in 2000 by the Federal District Court in Santa Ana, California, saying there was no proof that Consumer Reports acted with malice. In 2002, an appeals court in the Ninth Circuit sent the case back to the lower court for trial,
saying the magazine's testing was flawed enough to suggest actual malice.
The appellate court has 25 active judges and it rehears cases only when a majority votes to do so. A majority of 13 judges sent the case back to trial.
The 11 dissenting judges said the magazine had disclosed its methodology, however flawed, and thus could not be accused of fabrication. Further, the judges said: "it will be impossible to issue a meaningful consumer review that a band of determined lawyers can't pick apart in front of a jury. The ultimate losers will be American consumers denied access to independent information about the safety and usefulness of products they buy with their hard-earned dollars." Consumers Union said it intended to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case based on First Amendment issues. "
Even the judges that did not think it should go to court said their testing is flawed.
Long but shows many of the CR flaws.
and MORE!!!...
In 1981 the Bose Corporation sued Consumer Reports (CR) magazine for libel. CR reported in a review that the sound from the system that they reviewed "tended to wander about the room".
The District Court found that CR "had published the false statement with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of its truth or falsity," changing what the original reviewer stated about the speakers.
In 1996, Consumers Union (CU) published a report indicating that the 1995-96 Isuzu Trooper sport utility vehicle had demonstrated a "tendency to roll over in certain situations" in its tests, and that it had determined that this was "not acceptable". In a press conference, it called on Isuzu to discontinue sales and recall Troopers already sold, and continued to issue warnings about the Trooper, advising the public not to buy the vehicle, and suggesting that federal officials should launch an investigation into possible product defects. Isuzu filed a lawsuit against CU as a result of the article;
the court ruled that CR had made "numerous false statements" and had put the Isuzu through tests that competitors were not subjected to, but though eight of ten jurors wanted to assign punitive damages, they did not find enough evidence of malicious intent and did not assign Isuzu cash damages.
In 2006, Consumer Reports said six hybrid vehicles would probably not save owners money. The magazine later discovered that they had miscalculated depreciation, and released an update saying that four of the seven vehicles would save the buyer money, if the vehicle was kept for five years (including the federal tax credit for hybrid vehicles, which expires after each manufacturer sells 60,000 hybrid vehicles).
In February 1998, the magazine tested pet food and claimed that Iams dog food was nutritionally deficient. They later retracted the report claiming that there had been "a systemic error in the measurements of various minerals we tested ? potassium, calcium and magnesium."
They stated they would conduct the study again and publish the results but have yet to do so.
and on and on... CR is a joke.
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