bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

excellent point, and YES. if it's not boring, safe, mid-sized, and not luxurious, then they criticize it. CR is a joke.

mmarshall

I have to disagree, Paul. CR rates a lot of vehicles highly that are not mid-size appliances. For instance, they have always liked the Boxster and Miata, though they (correctly) commented that a Miata's noise-level and high-gear RPM were not for coast-to-coast cruising. They consider the Boxster to be the ideal sports-car. They have remarked on how good the subcompact Chevrolet Sonic generally is, especially compared to its Aveo predecessor. They also generally like the Sienna and Odyssey, though they have commented on the Sienna's cheaper interiors lately and the fact that the Odyssey is not as reliable as other Honda products. But the point is that, yes, they DO judge a lot of mid-size cars by the Camry/Accord, but their horizons are considerably wider than that.

LexBob2

Examples??

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

uh, the original post?

small cars criticized for being small. suvs criticized for being tall... gimme a break.

SecPole14

Concur. They ALWAYS take the easy way out.

I've pretty much lost what little respect I have for CR after this. Criticizing excellent, purpose-built, proven machinery like the FJ, 4Runner, and Tacoma shows how far off course this rag is. These BOF machines will still be running all over the world pulling their weight long after their precious Hyundais/BMWs/whatever have been tossed into the scrap heap.

And have you seen the guy doing some of their video reviews? He looks and sounds like he should be reviewing kitchen aprons, not cars. Yeah, like I'm going to buy or not buy something based on what HE says.......

LexBob2

How about noise, ride, fit & finish etc.?

FrankReynoldsCPA

I generally don't read the auto reviews for this reason. I will read auto news to know what is coming in the industry, but for actual reviews of quality, performance, etc...I prefer user input on message boards over the opinion of some journalist.

SteVTEC

Really wish you would stop trolling these CR threads. You've already admitted that you don't subscribe, and thus have basically no idea of what they DO actually compare to. Despite having better things to do, you always seem to have plenty of time to make completely uninformed comments and false statements about CR in threads like these.

SteVTEC

So what do you think of his actual OPINIONS and assessments of the cars? I've always found him and their other automotive reviewers to be pretty good.

pman6

I always knew CR was CRap.

It might be an ok point to start your shopping, but people should just go to their local car megamall and test drive everything for themselves and form their own opinions.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

lol. how about reading this to see why CR has no credibility at all?
http://www.allpar.com/cr.html

LexBob2

Interesting read but we're talking about two different things. Reliability ratings are from owner surveys (as expected FJ, 4Runner & Tacoma have great ratings). Road test results, the topic here, are from the mag and their testers.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

criticizing cheap cars or trucks for noise or ride is a bit silly.
as for fit and finish, bit surprising, wonder their sample size.

LexBob2

My guess is they are comparing fit & finish, noise and ride with other cheap cars and trucks.

In any case, skepticism duly noted.

SteVTEC

Their very first point there is completely invalid and irrelevant on the total response rate of their surveys, but if that's what you want to run with then fine by me.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2...-faq/index.htm

You can certainly critique survey methods and point out potential weaknesses. Like do Buicks really have better reliability than a lot of brands, or is the typical Buick driver more likely to be senior citizens who drive very conservatively and not all that much? Are BMWs likely to be driven more and a lot more aggressively? That was 10 years ago on the Buicks. Modern Buicks are obviously designed with far younger people in mind.

If you want to point out things like that that's fine, but to say they have "no credibility at all" is without grounds. Pure nonsense.

BTW, not all small cars have tiny and unusable back seats, and not all EVs have long charge times. And not all trucks have ease of access issues. You think they're all the same but they're not. What's the problem with CR pointing out things that are factually true about each vehicle? Like I said, why bother reviewing cars at all then?

You also don't need to wonder about sample size because that's all fully explained. But then again you don't actually read CR and have better things to do and just troll these threads, so what do you truly know?