Consumer Reports least reliable cars

[Jims Mongoose]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

It's fairly well documented that CR is biased against all American manufacturers and heavily favors imports.

I don't think there is any hard evidence that any survey or CR is paid or bribed in some way to report the way they do.

Having said that I have been following them for years in two critical areas to me, cars and High Fidelity equipment.

It has been clear to me that they always favor the cheaper brands in anyting when they can. They don't realize that it is not a linear relationship between overall quality and cost.
You can get a good sounding stereo for $1000, a great sounding one for $5000, but to get a small incremental better sound, sound field, good base, dispersion etc. you will pay a lot lot more.

Same with cars

I have always seen them favor foreign cars when they can, green cars always and rate silly things versus the driving experience, handling braking etc.

I find there best use is to compare features on home equipment side by side.

Jim
CR is useless as a place to go for cars.
Notice one thing though, Dodge is near bottom of the list in both surveys. I Stopped buying them years ago.
Great power train engineering company, Hemi, original torqueflight transmission and much more, but quality etc---- Yuck

JIm

[King Sun]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

It's fairly well documented that CR is biased against all American manufacturers and heavily favors imports.

links?

[King Sun]

Originally Posted by Jims Mongoose

I don't think there is any hard evidence that any survey or CR is paid or bribed in some way to report the way they do.

Having said that I have been following them for years in two critical areas to me, cars and High Fidelity equipment.

It has been clear to me that they always favor the cheaper brands in anyting when they can. They don't realize that it is not a linear relationship between overall quality and cost.
You can get a good sounding stereo for $1000, a great sounding one for $5000, but to get a small incremental better sound, sound field, good base, dispersion etc. you will pay a lot lot more.

Same with cars

I have always seen them favor foreign cars when they can, green cars always and rate silly things versus the driving experience, handling braking etc.

I find there best use is to compare features on home equipment side by side.

Jim
CR is useless as a place to go for cars.
Notice one thing though, Dodge is near bottom of the list in both surveys. I Stopped buying them years ago.
Great power train engineering company, Hemi, original torqueflight transmission and much more, but quality etc---- Yuck

JIm

And I was thinking about getting a 2015 charger scat pack :(

[MEDISIN]

Originally Posted by MLL67RSSS

It's always irked me to hear wealthy people say they would never buy a GM car due to it's "poor quality" when they go jump in their Land Rover, those POSs are all over the place here. Oh well I'm sure they love Fiat, finally knocked them off of last place.

We own both a Cadillac and a Land Rover so I will chime in on the relative dependability difference. Calling Land Rover a POS is a bit harsh. British electronics, Jaguar designed, yet Ford built engine, what could go wrong!? Do they suffer more unscheduled service trips on average? Undeniably. But lets put it in context. In 6 years of Land Rover ownership, not once has it ever left me stranded (or stuck). No catastrophic failures or jaw-dropping repair bills. It's little things like a sensor that flashes a warning and needs to be reset. A recall for some control module that might fail. Air suspension that sags at one wheel due to a slow leak. Stupid things, annoying things, but most are easily solved. Ultimately people choose notoriously "unreliable" cars because they have so much more to offer, you look past the niggles.

The Cadillac, on the other hand, has been rock solid. Two kids in car seats, track days, WOT at least once a day just to let her breath. I have had exactly ZERO unscheduled maintenance trips in 3 years. I busted a shock on a track day and Cadillac was kind enough to replace under warranty but that was 100% my fault. Even with all the GM recalls, my V has exactly ZERO recalls, ever. Sure there's a few TSB's out there but those can always wait for the next oil change.

Originally Posted by ChocoTaco369

Laughable. Audi and Mini near the top? Those are two of the least reliable manufacturers available. Constant problems. To gauge reliability, you need to look out past the 3-5 year mark. Cars don't fail at 8,000 miles. It doesn't matter if your taillight goes out. I want to see how long the engine and transmission lasts.

This^

Originally Posted by MrChrisLS3

So, Consumer Reports bases their line up off of voluntary survey where about 10% come back. Of that 10%, it is pretty common knowledge that unhappy people are more likely to respond than satisfied people (human nature). Then add to this equation that some are just frustrated, not because there is anything wrong with car, but they simply don't understand the systems and how they work.

One of the many limitations of survey based data.

Originally Posted by MrChrisLS3

Then, we have JD Power. More reliable in that it surveys actual dealer service visits and rates then in more reliable issues per 100 cars. However, what I want to know is what are those "issues"?

So, what is reliability? To me, a reliability issue is one that prevents the car from performing it's basic function, transportation. A convience issue, like trim pieces, faulty gadgets, and the occaisional faulty sensor are not so much 'reliability'.

Yes, I think most of us would agree. The data collected may not be granular enough to classify catastrophic failures vs annoyances. Perhaps they should count the number of cars that arrive at the dealerships on flatbeds lol

Originally Posted by shaffe

I think it constitutes any visit to teh dealership for service. So I believe even if it is something like someone cant get their infotainment system to work, that gets knocked on both Consumer Reports and JD power. Maybe someone else can chime in

Yes, ANY unscheduled visit to the service center. God &#^@ I hate it when you're right.

Originally Posted by squat

Are the CR charts easy to find? Also, do the numbers in parens - Lexus (7) - on the report indicate the number of people that responded or the number of issues they had?

The numbers represent the number of Lexus models evaluated for the brand. As an example, the Lexus reliability score might be representative of the GS, ES, LS, IS, RX, GX, and LX whereas the Infinity score might be representative of just the Q50, QX50 and QX80. Essentially whichever models Consumer Reports subscribers own (i.e. the boring ones)

[jd10013]

I wouldn't put too much stock into any reliability rankings. not that anybody is "paid off", that's just nonsense. the reality is, just about any car you buy today will be extremely reliable. the difference between the most and least reliable car made isn't much anymore. 30 years ago was a bit different, but with modern manufacturing anything you buy will run well for a long time.

[ChrisBlair]

Always remember that something like connectivity- which has zero to do with the car's actual reliability- can influence the results. It's like saying "Damned unreliable car! The popcorn maker is on the fritz and the cotton candy machine is jammed".