Bon-Ami for cleaning windshields

CR is very methodical, has plenty of qualified technical people, checks everybody's work by comittee after comittee, and overall they seem to make fewer mistakes than most reviewers, such as those publications that name cars of the year. CR's taste tests are another matter, and their judgments are often outright wierd (awful for pancake mix, good for coffee), and nobody should pay too much attention to their overall scores over their individual ratings (i.e., vacuum cleaners they judged best at cleaning scored worse than some others that were better in some unimportant aspects).

The very same can be said of GM, and look at them.

Is this the same methodical GM that brought out the CS130 alternator?

Yep! And the Chevrolet Lumina. And the THM200R4 transmission. And the

7-hour starter. And the 50mm x 135mm "Mister Magoo" miniature sealed-beam headlamp. And the 3.1 litre V6 engine. And the Pontiac Aztek. Do you begin to see my point?

Don't forget the Fiero!

Erik

But those are all examples of GM cutting corners and not being careful and methodical, which may be why so few of CR's top choices are GM vehicles.

No, they're all examples of GM's competent and careful engineers being committee-thinked and focus-grouped to death by careful, methodical beancounters.

Maybe from the days of windshields with a plastic coating on the inside?

Dave

I can understand how that results in Pontiac Aztek ugliness and how bean counting causes GM to use old parts in new car designs, but how does they result in bad transmissions and alternators?

CR's review comittees exist mostly to prevent personal opinions from affecting the reviews and to keep the company from being sued.

Liability bullshit. Some dipstick uses it on their windshield, has a wreck while yakking on their cell-phone, and goes looking for a scapegoat. Claims they couldn't see through the windshield because the glasswax made it blurry, and finds a no-good lawyer that will file the case for them.

Which would no doubt have gotten a highest-in-class rating from Condemner Retards, if they rated alternators...

Hey, Fieros are just fine... once you put an LS-1 in place of the four-popper. :-)

You really, honestly can't figure this out for yourself...? Did you, er, try? C'mon, don't be afraid to strain your brain. It probably won't break.

I'm sorry, Steve, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to rate your post "black dot" with a "3" in the "notes" column, and if you'll look down at the bottom of the page you'll see that "note 3" has a little frowny face next to it. Reliability has been a concern, and while quality has been improving, our unbiased and Platonically Perfect test results (we don't accept advertising) show that your post just can't measure up to the practical Japanese posts, which are consistently rated "red dot with white spot in center". Some samples of this post flipped over or leaned dangerously in our IP router crash-avoidance tests, a nuisance. Our post arrived with seventy-one sample defects, including a misaligned "A" in the rightmost column, a nuisance. You must rotate a medallion to open the trunk on this post, a nuisance. The post started and ran well, but exhibited suspiciously oppositional opinions of CR's pure-as-the-driven-snow conclusions (we don't accept advertising). Our recommendation: Honda.

--Consumer Reports, a nuisance.

What happened to your "the joke isn't working and it it's better to bail out now instead of continue with the misery" radar? Did radical feminist comedians take it away?

I mean, how does it result in those assemblies being badly designed, not badly manufactured. After all, an alternator or transmission isn't like a whole car, where old parts are carried over.

I repeat my question: You can't figure it out for yourself? You *really* need help with this? It's not a difficult concept...

It seems you can't answer the question. Group think shouldn't affect the quality of a new transmission or alternator because they're all new, unlike a car, which often contains older parts.

I can -- I'm just astounded that such a simple answer evades you. Keep workin' on it. If you haven't got it in another week or so, give a shout.