Consumer Reports Quality Report

[EdP]

There is also TrueDelta, based on user surveys, and the person who runs it is a statistician with a doctorate, so you could imagine they know what they are doing, and I have them to be kind of accurate? If you look, you'll see that their results generally tend to correlate with CR, so that's a good sign that they are both on the right track - when they have enough data.

JDpower is complete BS, though. They are an industry tool, designed to drive business and act as marketing.

Don't forget our individual perceptions and prejudices. No matter what the statistics say, if your uncle had a '59 Plymouth and lots of problems you may not want to buy a Plymouth. But if your brother-in-law had an AMC Pacer with 250,000 miles you know it is a great car.

Fact is, every car maker has a couple that make the extremes of good and bad. The closer you are to them the more the influence.

 

[canucklehead604]

^ i actually bought my bro-in-law's Pacer as a DD. amazing ride, so i second that. way better than my previous 50's Plymouth.

lol. funny references, but i get the idea. those notions often influence the layman (i.e. non-car enthusiast) more than those who research for themselves or have a hobbyist interest in cars. my wife's sisters are all convinced Hondas are the only way to go. they've only ever owned Hondas, and they are not 'car chicks' so they do not ask much out of their vehicles. plus, Hondas are a safe bet. luckily they didn't choose AMC's as their go-to ride many years ago.

i like to reference long-term test results from auto publications like C&D's 40k mile tests. yet another decent source of 'empirical' data to go by - albeit a singular data point.

 

[[NOBODY]]

Don't forget our individual perceptions and prejudices. No matter what the statistics say, if your uncle had a '59 Plymouth and lots of problems you may not want to buy a Plymouth. But if your brother-in-law had an AMC Pacer with 250,000 miles you know it is a great car.

Yes, true. It's frustrating.

Fact is, every car maker has a couple that make the extremes of good and bad. The closer you are to them the more the influence.