Help me understand Consumer Reports [fixed the gaint img]

Consumer data is like these forums.... you don't always get a true picture. I rarely respond to any survey regarding the items I purchase. However I do respond if I have a problem with the item. Same with forums, of the millions of RV owners in the US and Canada only a small portion ever post anything on this forum. Folks come to this type of forum usually if the have a problem, complaint or like to share their knowledge/opinions... Majority of RV owners are silent because they are happy with their RV.

All you have to do is sit for an hour alongside a major highway and watch the pickups go by that are towing a trailer or hauling a camper. You'll get a feel for what RV'ers are buying and keeping...

IMO, Consumer Reports isn't even good entertainment. Over the years, I subscribed several times, hoping for a different experience (yeah, I know, "One definition of insanity...) but was disappointed every time.
Some things I have found to be "Always" items:
Foreign vehicles are wonderful (even if they are built in the United States).
Jeeps are terrible.
Any truck that rides like a truck is useless.
If they like an appliance, I probably won't.
If they don't like an appliance, chances are I will get excellent service from it.
If they like a movie, it isn't worth buying a ticket to see it.
If they do not like a movie, I will probably enjoy it.
Lesson learned (finally): Do not subscribe to Consumer Reports!
Of course, your results may vary.

Which HD trucks is one question that they don't address in that table. The diesel trucks are a completely different critter than the gas engine versions, in the power train anyway. Diesel HD trucks have the reputation of lasting 500,000 miles or more so they must be somewhat reliable. And how are they defining reliable in the first place? Consumer Reports doesn't have the reputation of being simpatico with the limited HD truck world. I generally found their reports to be not very reliable and let my subscription lapse years ago.

I don't have any use for CR. I used to subscribe but found they were very biased.

gmcsmoke wrote:
just wanted to quote the ginormous pic.

It's gaint.

Your FIRST mistake is READING "Consumer Reports".

It IS a HIGHLY BIASED "Infomercial" for the brands that grease the publishers' palms more.

I remember way back in the early 1990s when CR often "rated" GOLDSTAR VCRS as the "best"..

From a reliability and pix quality they were the absolute worst, worked at a repair shop back then and Goldstars were the HIGHEST failure return rate under warranty..

People read it in CR that they were good or better and people bought them and I FIXED them..

You must understand that ANY "data" can and will be skewed, so take what CR says with a grain of salt..

Buy what YOU LIKE, not what some magazine tells you to buy..

Just understand that pretty much anything can break or fail, even the top listed make on CR magazine..

From what I understand the Cr ratings are more about the stereo head unit than anything. If the rating is low the owners likely hate the stereo nav setup or find it buggy ( many are ) but really not a fair measure of an HD truck.

Paul Clancy wrote:
From what I understand the Cr ratings are more about the stereo head unit than anything. If the rating is low the owners likely hate the stereo nav setup or find it buggy ( many are ) but really not a fair measure of an HD truck.

Paul, you do bring up a valid point, pretty much every vehicle now days is saturated in "high tech" devices like Nav, Sync, Onstar and so on..

Some of those devices are extremely buggy and often causes complaints.

I know myself, I JUNKED the "Sync" in my 2013 truck, what utter garbage and I had no choice because it was LUMPED into an option package that contained something that to me is useful (To get adjustable pedals I HAD to buy the option that included Sync).

Replaced that buggy Sync with an aftermarket stereo which doesn't randomly forget stations, turn its self on or off, freezes, turns volume down until you turn the truck off and restart it??? And so on.

Seen lots of complaints about Sync but yet it continues to go unfixed and they sell them buy the gross..

Like I said, don't buy something because a magazine says it is best, you don't know what data they have thrown out to arrive at their conclusion.

One of my problems with any of these so called reliability surveys is they don't have a good long term picture. Which is fair enough, because it would be ten years before you got a big sampling of data.

If you would have surveyed me at the five year point on my Nissan truck, I would have reported 100% reliability. However between five years and now 11 years, I've repaired/replaced quite a few things, so the survey would look very different.

IMO, the more detailed pictures they provide are more useful - the one that shows the reliability/satisfaction scores for various aspects of the vehicle over time. That will let you know that a particular score, for instance, is a result of very low satisfaction with the Nav system (or whatever), but the rest of the car is basically fine.

The detailed ratings on vehicles will also let you see things such as the example from gmw photos - that a car is good for the first 4-5 years then suffers lots of problems. If you only plan to own it for 4 years, you might not care. If you're like me, and want to own it for at least 10 years, reliability as the car ages becomes more important.