Re: Bias Against Domestic Cars

Consumer Reports is indeed biased. In the 70+ years of its existence, it has tested just about every conceivable products except guns.

Sure guns are tested, evaluated and reported on by enthusiast magazines & American Rifleman, but those are hardly unbiased sources of information. CU does not test guns because they do not like them, period. Despite this fact, they would do the public a favor to report on guns. They are a household item in 30 to 40% of homes, so it is irrational of CU to ignore this product. CU should at least bring to light the relative inherent safety of revolvers compared to the hazard of the pistol. In particular, the danger of the original Berreta 9 which lacked a magazine safety, leading to the deaths of several children who played with loaded pistols. Avoid pistols and urge your local police department to make revolvers required for sworn officers so they will not accidentally shoot arrestees by accident as frequently happens when they carry pistols. Also, pistols "jam" and revolvers never do not to mention pistols have bad triggers and are inaccurate. Believe you me, these are factual statements.

Guns have done more to keep us safe in our homes than all the police forces. And without being fired. Criminals know guns are in a lot of homes, but they don't know which homes. So they leave homes alone. This is not the case in foreign countries that ban citizens from keeping guns. Likewise, in right to concealed carry states, street crime is reduced for the same reason. Guns make for a polite society.

Il mittente di questo messaggio|The sender address of this non corrisponde ad un utente |message is not related to a real reale ma all'indirizzo fittizio|person but to a fake address of an di un sistema anonimizzatore |anonymous system Per maggiori informazioni |For more info

formatting link

Reply to
George Orwell
Loading thread data ...

On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:01:53 +0100 (CET), George Orwell wrote Re Re: Bias Against Domestic Cars:

Great post. Thanks.

Reply to
Caesar Romano

I've subscribed to CR for 40 years.....

cars: in the reiliability grids compiled from subscriber surveys.....find them interesting (or entertaining)....they will indicate when they have "insufficient data" but don't say how many responses constitute sufficient responses. I've filled out many surveys over the years and noted that I tend to respond when I'm exceptionally pleased or displeased with a product, which introduces more bias into results.

Then there's the matter of expectations: a Lincoln owner may have higher expectations than a Ford owner which helps explain differences in badge-engineered vehicles, such as MKS or MKZ vs Taurus or Fusion.

Not to mention that some people are just plain nuts....examples: people who buy Jeep Wranglers then give them bad reviews for ride or "Body Integrity" (rattles, air & water leaks, etc)......just what did they expect??? I stopped taking the charts too seriously many years ago when they rated one year Corvette for having early-onset body rust problems (must have been a bad batch of plastic!).

products in general: CR used to be a gold mine of practical info on a wide-range or products ......either infrequent big-ticket purchases or everyday staples. Now they're caught in a bind between the cost of testing things and rapidly evolving high-tech gizmos: virtually every issue now is just a recap of the latest LCD tv sets, PDAs, pc's, & digital cameras. Sorry guys, I took you advice on which 36" conventional tv to buy....and it's gonna be a few more years before I replace it with a flat screen. (btw, damn thing cost $1000 and it's been repaired 4 times so far....so much for the reliability ratings).

Reply to
Itsfrom Click

From the latest issue (Dec 09):

How we assess reliablity Our data are based on an annual survey of subscribers to Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org and are not derived from our vehicle testing. A model needs at least 100 responses for us to score it.

From the survey, we create a reliability history for each model over the course of 10 years, 2000 to 2009. We use the data, in part, to help readers determine which used cars to choose. We also use it for forecast how 2010 models will hold up. That predicted-reliability score is based on a model's overall reliability for the latest three model years, provided that the 2010 version hasn't changed significantly. If a model was new or redesigned in that perioud, we might use one or two years of data. We will make a prediction for a newly redesigned model only if previous versions had outstanding reliability.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

Yet this is subject to response bias. Some people are more likely to respond to the survey than others, for a variety of reasons, including economic circumstances as well as how well the car holds up compared to their expectations. These are well-known problems with surveys.

Jeff

Reply to
dr_jeff

On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:01:53 +0100, George Orwell fired up the etcha-a-sketch and scratched out:

I know I shouldn't respond to an anonymous troll, but...

I didn't know there *was* a difference between revolvers and pistols.

Aren't they the same?

Reply to
PerfectReign

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.