I used to believe their “reliability” crap, but years later actually subscribed – and participated in their reliability “surveys.” If you have ever seen their survey, you quickly come to realize that it is basically an opinion poll that you can’t POSSIBLY get any statistically meaningful information from. The question they ask is basically “Have you experienced any PROBLEM that YOU CONSIDER to be SERIOUS (based on cost, downtime, etc)” with respect to various categories, that in turn lump together such wide-ranging components as to make the information meaningless, even if the question was remotely objective.

Basically, this allows 2 people that have the same exact thing serviced on their vehicle to respond in directly opposite ways. Since they are so biased towards Japanese products, for example, and have berated competing American products for years, and distribute their “survey” ONLY to subscribers (who read their crap on a regular basis and presumably have their viewpoint “colored” by being “consumers” of CR), consider the following “hypothetical” scenario:

Person A has a Honda Accord and Person B a Pontiac Grand Prix. BOTH have their front brakes serviced (pads and rotors) before getting their CR “survey.” Person A, having the constantly praised Honda, considers this pads and rotors service “maintenance” since his perfect Honda obviously doesn’t have anything “wrong” with it, it is simply time to replace something designed to be periodically replaced. Person B, on the other hand, constantly assaulted with CR’s berating of his inferior vehicle that suffers from a lack of “refinement” and such other “objective” CR concerns, looks at his something-hundred dollar bill for a brake service and marks off the “problem” box on his “survey.” Not at all implausible. If they simply asked WHAT services were performed under WHAT circumstances for each survey responder and then had someone actually make an objective determination of “maintenance” items versus “problems” related to vehicle “reliability,” then they might get some semi-useful information.

Bottom line, go to MSN Autos if you want actually USEFUL reliability information; they gather data from actual repair shop records and not only give you an idea of frequency of repair, they tell you WHAT the problem items are, what SPECIFIC engines, etc. experience said problems, AND how much in parts and labor it is to fix them. What a concept!

As for Generally Mediocre, there’s a company that deserves to be liquidated. Their arrogance and their bean counted to sh!t, heavily discounted (cause they wouldn’t sell otherwise) garbage products have been the bane of the American auto industry for decades now.

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Just to tease the folks of CR. Buy a magazine copy of their rival Consumer Guide(CG) ;-)