Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
I don't think they are suspect at all as they are owner surveys of sufficient sample size. People that don't accept CR and JD power results are typically those that can't accept that their anecdotal evidence is nothing more than that.
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The issue with JD Power is that they are a for-profit company, and the rankings are directly tied to services they sell to the car manufacturers. Apart from the awards (which they sell the rights to advertise with) they also offer consulting services for manufacturers to raise their scores. If that's not a conflict of interest, I don't know what is.
Apart from the results being tied to their business prospects, the surveys themselves also aren't particularly deep or illuminating to a consumer. They track problems per manufacturer, but like I said, a "problem" could be a transmission needing to be replaced, or a cracked cupholder. They don't release that info. A weighted system would be much more beneficial for a consumer because not all problems are the same.
That is how you get results like this, where Dodge and Chevy are in the top 3.
I have no huge problems with Consumer Reports. Most publications are for-profits that have their cars lent to them (which are not random cars of the dealer lot), and then sell advertising to the very manufacturers they supposedly are impartial to. CR, on the other hand, is a nonprofit and buy the cars that they test from dealers. The only real issue there might be the sample size, and the fact they only survey CR readers, not the general public... so you may not get much insight into a particular model if it's not popular with CR's demographic. They may not always be enthusiasts, but they at least have some valid testing protocols.