Consumer Affairs article which includes Lori Queen's (GM's Small car executive) comments:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...r_detroit.html

and Canada's Auto123 news little discovery:
http://www.auto123.com/en/info/news/...tid=58024&pg=1

 

Consumer Reports is a great magazine . . . for judging toasters and vacuums. On virtually any big ticket item, they miss the mark, and especially with cars.

 

Lori Queen sounds like a 10 year old crying to her mom, "Why don't people like me". No one cares.

Real people care what CR has to say.

You either back up your claims with hard evidence and bring it forward for the public to review or you shut up and produce product real people want.

If GM has the smoking gun like they did with Dateline and the Side Saddle fuel tank, schedule an interview with the press and make your case.

Comments like this only makes GM and their management look pathetic and out of touch, if valid or not.

 

Well I disagree. The most misinformed are the 'real people who care'. Only the most ignorant segments of the buying public still trust and believe CR. It's becoming more and more obvious to car buyers that CR is chronically biased towards import makes.

I happen to agree with Lori Queen. Next to CBS and CNN, I cannot think of a more opportunistic and professionally dishonest media group than CR. What a bunch of pirates.

 

You copied this from your post on C&G ver batum didn't you?

 

Those articles make no more of a substantiated case against consumer reports than consumer reports makes for its vehicles.

How can the authors of those articles feel they have a publish-worthy 'case' against CR's lack of objectiveness when they in turn are lacking the same objectiveness other than to attempt to extract/assume the means by only looking at the results?

IE: assuming somebody cheated on a test because they got a better grade than you think they were capable of.

 

Yup and GM and Fords market share continues to drop, month after month after month. Crying about CR and how unfair they are, is not going to change that or people perceptions about them.

 

There are a multitude of reasons for GM's share loss... bloated UAW benefits, corporate mistakes like the Fiat fiasco, unfair trade policies in other countries like Japan... but CR has contributed to the problem by 'poisoning the well' of brand equity for GM and Ford. Statisticians could make mincemeat of CR's methods and claims. CR is the laughingstock of modern 'journalism'.

Here's some light reading for your homework:

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

 

Why? If there are issues with C&D's journalistic integrity, then she has every right to say so. It would be one thing if she were the only one saying these things. There have been many who've argued that C&D's survey system is grossly unscientific and that their staff is biased towards Japanese makes.

 

Allpar.com

I don't know if this has been posted on here or not. I can't remember where I first saw it.

 

GM has created their own problems and their history with CU still haunts them. I know CU better than you think.

The facts are in the publics eye, CR has real credibility. In the market that is what counts and what sells product.

GM put your stats guys on the case.

 

C&D is Car and Driver and has nothing to do with the idiots at Consumer Reports.

The fact that they cater to "real people," as in the ignorant masses, is right in their name... CONSUMER Reports. "Real people" like to make "good" decisions but don't like to do their homework. "Real people" turn to *** rags like CR to "think" for them and make their "good" decisions that will appease their peers. It's long become socially unacceptable to actually LIKE a domestic brand let alone want it to do well. And your friendly folks at CR are just happy to cater to that and to reinforce that image _regardless_ of what's really going on.

 

Not really agreeing with this. It is true in certain social circles, such as liberal movie stars who buy a Prius to make a socio-political statement, and with high-dollar defense attorneys who buy a Lexus to show their defiance to America and all things American. But let's not forget all the working folks who buy work trucks from the Big Three... the soccer moms/dads driving (and being delighted with) the new 07 Tahoe... and muscle car fans like me who are proud to take an 05 GTO to a local cruise such as the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit. Fact is, there's a backlash underway, a rebellion against appliance-sedans from Japan. Hummer H2, C6 Z06, Tahoe, GTO, CTS-V are all evidence of this. I haven't even touched on the evidence from other makers.... such as the new Mustang, F150, 300C SRT8 and the Hemi Charger.

 

Right now there is a poll on detnews.com in which 45% of those who have responded rated the new 2007 Yukon "unacceptable". Do you think any of these people have come within 50 feet of the new GMT-900s? Let alone driven one?

It's called pre-conditioning, and I fear that it's never going to change with attitudes like this.

 

I think it's just a matter of time. Word-of-mouth, or 'buzz marketing', is very powerful over time. GM and the other domestics just need to keep churning out distinctively American hit products at good prices and the tide will turn. The days of import brands consistently encroaching on market share are numbered IMHO.