[TheWilliamsFamily]

Hey everyone. Just received my April 2010 Consumer Reports - their annual car issue. A few of interesting items about the E.

I have a 2007 Element that I purchase in November. Love it! No problems! I notice in the Consumer Reports that the 2006 Electrical components are rated average. - anyone know why? 2007 Brakes are rated average - does anyone know what has prompted such an average rating? Also, take a look at 2009 Body ratings - that was a shock...Any idea what prompted that "Much Worse Than Average" rating.

CS rates all used Elements at "Much Better Than Average" and rates the 2010 Element as "Excellent" in reliability, but surprisingly not one of their recommended cars.

Of course we all know it is "Very Excellent" "Highly Recommended" in coolness and versatility. :grin: Anyway, anyone have any comments, especially on the 2007 brakes, since that's the one I own...

Have a blessed day!

 

[lizzurd]

Hey everyone. Just received my April 2010 Consumer Reports - their annual car issue. A few of interesting items about the E.

I have a 2007 Element that I purchase in November. Love it! No problems! I notice in the Consumer Reports that the 2006 Electrical components are rated average. - anyone know why? 2007 Brakes are rated average - does anyone know what has prompted such an average rating? Also, take a look at 2009 Body ratings - that was a shock...Any idea what prompted that "Much Worse Than Average" rating.

CS rates all used Elements at "Much Better Than Average" and rates the 2010 Element as "Excellent" in reliability, but surprisingly not one of their recommended cars.

Of course we all know it is "Very Excellent" "Highly Recommended" in coolness and versatility. :grin: Anyway, anyone have any comments, especially on the 2007 brakes, since that's the one I own...

Have a blessed day!

View attachment 77647

CR is a below average mag best used as a bird cage liner and nothing else.But that just my opinion. If you search for other threads here about CR there seems to be a general concensus that CR is good fro reading up on anybut cars.

 

[mkh]

CR is a below average mag best used as a bird cage liner and nothing else. Take everything they say with a grain of salt.

Ditto that. They have been sued numerous times for reviews that were based only on a particular CR employee's personal opinion and nothing else. As well, their "testing" is often subjective and so far less than scientific it's laughable. I remember one where they were sued for posting vac. cleaner hepa filter tests - supposedly done in their "clean-room testing facility" - which turned out to be a corner of an office cube-farm with some plastic sheeting paper-clipped to the ceiling tile supports.Half the workers had to go through this "clean-room" to get to the washrooms and the coffee room. It was about as "clean" as a used ashtray. Do a search on this site for some of the details of their law suits and fake tests. Most recently, they had to redo all their testing of child car seats, when the Govt. reveiwed their results and asked what the testing procedure was - CR "couldn't say". When asked if they did rear collision tests the answer was "No", when they were asked if they did side impact tests, again "No", yet they published that most seats they tested were "dangerous in side impacts". They said they "extrapolated the results from other tests", but would not reveal what those tests were. Turns out they were using a formula that assumed all side impact crashes were from being hit by a vehicle going over 70 mph. They are now supposed to "redo" all their child car seat tests - but they still won't tell anyone what their testing procedure is. CR is a total joke.

 

[TheWilliamsFamily]

Used car ranking are (according to the magazine) "based on our [CS] Annual Auto Survey which was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center and sent to subscribers of our magazine and Web site."

:| Just wondering if anyone has had any of these issues...

 

[ApriliaGuy]

the '09 body rating is prolly related to the lack of gray/black fenders and bumper being available starting in '09.

Everyone know painted panels are evil! :evil:



:twisted:
Just kidding....it is prolly just 'cause CR cluelss. ;-)

 

[steamloco76]

Here's a good one for you to ponder-

The Ford F-150 has been the number one selling vehicle in the USA for years.

Ford introduced the Triton modular V-8 in 1997 in these trucks. I've owned two '97 and '00. Both trucks had the exhaust manifold studs rot off and also the manifolds themselves. Both had premature ball joint failure. Both suffered coil pack failures. Talking to my friends that own the F150 up through the 2007 model year- they have ALL had the manifold problem, the ball joint failure and all but one experienced coil pack trouble. Inspection stations find exhaust manifold leaks on almost every 4.6L or 5.4L Triton that has more than 50K and is more than 3 years old.

Look at CR's reliability for these trucks and see if ANY of these trouble spots show up.

 

[slimerdogs]

Oh but its a Ford!!!. We have a lot of F150s at work and its a cement plant so everything gets caked with cement. A lot of coil pack replacement and cracking doors and HVAC issues.

 

[cmpbx]

Used car ranking are (according to the magazine) "based on our [CS] Annual Auto Survey which was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center and sent to subscribers of our magazine and Web site."

:| Just wondering if anyone has had any of these issues...

I remember reading a few threads on here about 07s with 'squishy' brakes, but there have not been any recalls or 'bring your 07 E in and we will replace X part' for the 07.

Someone posted a thread about the 09 getting a low score on body integrety a couple of days ago and it got me thinking. Maybe the survey takers who bought 09 Es would have bought a more expensive SUV except for the sucky economy. If you put someone who is used to a luxury vehicle in the plastic box of an E, they will probably hear more rattles than someone used to driving a 95 pick-up. I dunno...

 

[mkh]

I remember reading a few threads on here about 07s with 'squishy' brakes, but there have not been any recalls or 'bring your 07 E in and we will replace X part' for the 07.

Someone posted a thread about the 09 getting a low score on body integrety a couple of days ago and it got me thinking. Maybe the survey takers who bought 09 Es would have bought a more expensive SUV except for the sucky economy. If you put someone who is used to a luxury vehicle in the plastic box of an E, they will probably hear more rattles than someone used to driving a 95 pick-up. I dunno...

I remember reading about CR's "survey" methods. Some statistics guru said their rating methods and survey questionairs are extremly poorly designed, and the data collected was pretty much garbage because of that - so the results almost useless.

http://www.allpar.com/cr.html

http://www.truedelta.com/pieces/newdots.php

 

[buttermilk]

Well, when you open the door on an '09, you can see styrofoam stuffed behind the front fender. I've never seen another vehicle that used styrofoam like that. Maybe that's what they are referring to. That stuff ain't very strong you know.

 

[poohbah]

One of the most famous CR gaffs I remember involved the Plymouth/Eagle/Mitsubishi triplets. The Talon, Laser, and Mitsu (can't remember the moniker) all came off the same factory line. Basically a computer decided which one got which badge.

Sure enough, the Plymouth got a below average reliability, Eagle was neutral, and the Mitsu was above average.

Consumer Reports knew so little about these vehicles that they didn't even notice when twins (or in this case triplets) got completely different ratings. This exposed just how inaccurate their "scientific studies" can be.

 

[mkh]

One of the most famous CR gaffs I remember involved the Plymouth/Eagle/Mitsubishi triplets. The Talon, Laser, and Mitsu (can't remember the moniker) all came off the same factory line. Basically a computer decided which one got which badge.

Sure enough, the Plymouth got a below average reliability, Eagle was neutral, and the Mitsu was above average.

Consumer Reports knew so little about these vehicles that they didn't even notice when twins (or in this case triplets) got completely different ratings. This exposed just how inaccurate their "scientific studies" can be.

Yeah, they have done the same thing with gas mileage ratings. Rated one model below average, the other above average - when both get exactly the same mileage. :|

 

[xequar]

IIRC they did that with the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe twins, too. They gave the Matrix an above average rating and the Vibe a below average rating, despite the fact that they were literally the same car with different badges.

What burns me about Consumer Reports is how many people take them to be gospel truth about all sorts of things, especially cars.

 

[MikeQBF]

Ah, the annual "rag on CR" thread. :-D

CR's auto reliability surveys are completely self-serving, and circular. IOW, they only survey their "members" (subscribers), who usually made their vehicle purchases influenced by CR's rating system.

I've thumped this before, but it took CU/CR decades to get off their high horse that anybody whose preference wasn't a 4-door sedan was not to be taken seriously. Therefore, their audience [ta da!] became drivers of four-door sedans.

Anyway... I strongly suspect the downgraded ratings are due to insufficient sample data for statistical significance. Their sample of "Element owners who subscribe to CR and fill-out our surveys" has to be small beyond small. I would assert that just one person in the survey pool for each pool had a problem... and then the assumption is the responder knew what they were talking about.

At best, a shoulder-shrug.

 

[ApriliaGuy]

They gave the Matrix an above average rating and the Vibe a below average rating, despite the fact that they were literally the same car with different badges.

Yes, but for some weird reason they two cars are produced in two seperate facilities. :twisted:

The Vibes were made in California (with some Corollas!) and the Matrix was/is made in Canada.

The whole thing makes no sense.

CR is great.....if you like Consumer Reports.

Supposedly, the reviews come from people like you.....fellow subscribers. If you're like me and find flaws and generally disagree with many of their results, you prolly aren't a subscriber (or contributer) anyway.

 

[steamloco76]

Well, when you open the door on an '09, you can see styrofoam stuffed behind the front fender. I've never seen another vehicle that used styrofoam like that. Maybe that's what they are referring to. That stuff ain't very strong you know.

Toyota used it to silence/reinforce the front fenders on the 2002-2006 Camry- my '04 had it.

 

[xequar]

Yes, but for some weird reason they two cars are produced in two seperate facilities. :twisted:

The Vibes were made in California (with some Corollas!) and the Matrix was/is made in Canada.

The whole thing makes no sense.

CR is great.....if you like Consumer Reports.

Supposedly, the reviews come from people like you.....fellow subscribers. If you're like me and find flaws and generally disagree with many of their results, you prolly aren't a subscriber (or contributer) anyway.

Actually, they were both produced in Cali at the NUMMI plant, which is closing because of GM killing Pontiac. Matrix isn't high enough volume for Toyota to run the plant without the other half, as it were.

Personally, I think CR just makes **** up. I would think that every automaker has tried to decode the CR testing methods by now, and yet it's still a crapshoot what you're going to find when you crack it open.

 

[lizzurd]

Actually, they were both produced in Cali at the NUMMI plant, which is closing because of GM killing Pontiac. Matrix isn't high enough volume for Toyota to run the plant without the other half, as it were.

Personally, I think CR just makes **** up. I would think that every automaker has tried to decode the CR testing methods by now, and yet it's still a crapshoot what you're going to find when you crack it open.

They may have also been built in Cali but Toyota Canadas site lists the Matrix as being built in Canada.

http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObj...lant-OcSMQHpbtLtTqbNtY3qZYg/3.9?a130170e.html

 

[spdrcr5]

Here is my take on CR and CU... they are the Bose of the magazine and consumer products testing industry.

They are all about image over substance. Don't question them, they will always be correct in everything they do. I have absolutely no respect for either company.



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[xequar]

They may have also been built in Cali but Toyota Canadas site lists the Matrix as being built in Canada.

http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObj...lant-OcSMQHpbtLtTqbNtY3qZYg/3.9?a130170e.html

Well, that's what I get for only doing a quick fact-check on Wikipedia...