Consumer Reports vehicle rankings

[Al]

Who Makes the best vehicles? :
https://www.consumerreports.org/car...ar-brands-make-the-best-vehicles-a6159221985/

Who Makes most reliable vehicle?
https://www.consumerreports.org/car...who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/

I have felt this way and have owned 5 of them.
Except for the known head gasket issue of previous generations. I have not had a single problem.
Probably annoys a lot of Subaru Haters

 

[rijndael]

BMW and Subaru at the top? Yea, sure ....

 

[Rand]

reminds me why I dont subscribe
I'm not a subaru hater having owned 5 of them.
I would like to see a full explanation of everything and how they arrived at it.

 

[SC Maintenance]

BMW and Subaru at the top? Yea, sure ....

Appears to be based on road test, owner satisfaction and reliability. I can see BMW and Subi being really high on those first two.

 

[rijndael]

That is about as useful to me as JD Power's "Initial Quality" ratings.

I've bought a few items from CR's top list, like a Samsung refrigerator. It had 8 icemaker replacements in the 5 years I owned it. Good thing I got the extended warranty. Once it broke outside the warranty, I had to replace it.

 

[wpod]

All the marques are producing garbage in every imaginable way.

 

[bdcardinal]

Don't even consider that magazine for anything. I was gifted a subscription to it and went through all the hoops to cancel and have them send a check to my aunt.

 

[IndyIan]

reminds me why I dont subscribe
I'm not a subaru hater having owned 5 of them.
I would like to see a full explanation of everything and how they arrived at it.

https://www.consumerreports.org/car...umer-reports-car-reliability-faq-a1099917197/

I'm not a super fan of CR, but they don't take advertising and they buy all the stuff they review at a store or dealership, and they aren't two jokers on a youtube channel...

My perception of Subaru after doing some reading on them, is that they realized they were going to fail around 2010-12 (and knew they aren't too big to fail!) if they didn't get on top of reliability, and so have been focused on that since then. They are also an engineering driven company(US marketing aside!) and they are basically trying to perfect a single awd drivetrain layout, for a few decades.
Now they've started on their CVT and been at that for 14 years, and are getting that figured out.
I think they are a bit more careful with their suppliers, than many other manufacturers vehicles in their price range. And they don't have that many parts to monitor quality on, with only 2 main engine designs, 2 CVT's and a few manuals.
So they are pretty well placed to make cheaper cars that hold together a bit better than some other car companies.

 

[Rand]

I'm not a super fan of CR,

I meant the weighting on reliability
do they count a transmission failing the same as radio that freezes once a month/ something more benign.

My subaru radio lags so bad when you start it you just wait 30s for it to "warm up"
then it lags about every 30s.. if you try to change radio at that time.. it can take upto 8-10s to change stations.
FWIW the 22 forester didnt do this with the old gen screen (outback has the 12" big screen)
What sort of weighting would that have vs a cvt exploding or engine oil burning.. type issues.

 

[Bill Judson]

Probably annoys a lot of Subaru Haters

Subaru Haters???

Is that some political action committee seeking to ban Subarus or something?

I never heard of them

I meant the weighting on reliability
do they count a transmission failing the same as radio that freezes once a month/ something more benign.

They give good reviews to those who send in the largest checks ya know!

 

[walterjay]

We bought an expensive kitchen stove based on CR top rating for stoves. It was the worse poc appliance we ever owned. After a few short years I was glad to scrap it.

 

[Bill Judson]

We bought an expensive kitchen stove based on CR top rating for stoves. It was the worse poc appliance we ever owned. After a few short years I was glad to scrap it.

So did you write them a letter and give them a piece of your mind?

 

[Rand]

They give good reviews to those who send in the largest checks ya know!

Isnt the point of CR that they dont take checks?

 

[IndyIan]

I meant the weighting on reliability
do they count a transmission failing the same as radio that freezes once a month/ something more benign.

They have major and minor engine and transmission categories, and in-car electronics. I see for my Outback it is around average for overall reliability score, with above average expensive stuff, and then the radio, and body hardware dragging it down a bit. We had the seat bottom replaced under warranty.
In the last few years the radio has been above average along with the rest, so now CR assumes the trend will continue with a new car.

 

[Bill Judson]

Isnt the point of CR that they dont take checks?

Yeah... they making money from these large companies who want good reviews.

They play like they don't, but they do

 

[IndyIan]

Yeah... they making money from these large companies who want good reviews.

They play like they don't, but they do

Any evidence?

 

[Oillover]

Nice to see Volvo making substantial progress.

 

[THORROMIG]

My Aunt got me acouple years worth on Consumer Reports subscriptions for X-mas over the years. I never paid for the magazine myself and wont, do find it interesting on new products. Does not influence my buying opinion one bit. Good read though overall.

 

[IndyIan]

Yeah, just like the FBI had no evidence against most of those mafia guys... doesn't mean it's not going on.

Keep in mind also they if they claim a product is garbage.... they can be taken to court by the company making said garbage.

Reviews from actual consumers is always better than some company claiming they never take payments which have no way of making revenue without accepting payments from somebody.

The have $240 million revenue from 6 million subscriptions(~$40 each), and 600 employees, so they have quite a decent budget to buy products, maybe $100 million a year?
I don't think they are the only source of good car info but they seem pretty independent to me. Their long term reliability scores are from subscriber surveys of actual repairs done, not their brand perceptions or other stuff marketers would be interested in.

 

[cptbarkey]

I loved the vehicle books from the 90s, all those black dots and red dots. The poor Chevy Astro didnt deserve all that red.