Any idea why Consumer Reports ranks Porsche engines so poor? I just looked up the Boxster and 911 and both got very bad rankings for engines. Most other factors received pretty good rankings.

Do you trust them to make accurate predictions for household items (vacuum cleaners, washing machines, treadmills, etc.)?
Have you ever used them before making a purchase?

I'm interesting in your thoughts on CR in general and that of Porsche engines.

Stacey

 

I took my car out twice today on windy roads. Each time for an hour. Each time I had this huge grin on my face. Engine seemed good to me.

 

I quit reading CR when they tested a 912 in 1968 and said it didn't have nimble handing one would expect in a sports car. Figured they were idiots- always thought they had a political agenda anyway... once in a great while I may see what they think of a particular TV or refrigerator but that's about it!

 

It's based on the rate of RMS and engine failures reported in their owner surveys.

 

I have no use for Consumer Reports for any product. I find their research methodology suspect and manipulated at best, particularly for anything other than mass consumer, high N, items.

I find user boards such as this much more helpful in assessing a products performance. You have to realize that people with problems tend to be more vocal than those without, but if you want to get an honest assesment of what could possibly go wrong with something check out what people in the forums are saying. Again, you'll have to use your judgement to determine if a problem is unique to a handful of people or spread throughout the general population.

 

Although the factory has never officially released a figure, the reported rate of RMS failure was greater than 25%. According to the PCA tech section failures occur from 12,000 to 20,000 miles if they are going to occur. It is the "if" they occur that is the most frustrating for owners.

 

I think it is a result of the fact that Porsche is such a SMALL volume car company.

Probably also, that Porsche owners are more tuned into their cars and have higher expectations so they tend to complain more.

 

We went through this issue once before,--CR ratings are based on a bunch of things, including little things. The data wound up skued.

Dan

 

Who reads CR these days? It's meaningless IMO. On major purchase like cars, I'd trust forums and judge for myself. For appliances and stereo stuff, I'd go with avsforums and amazon user review. Ultimately, I think most reviews suck and are grossly inaccurate.

 

Granted that the methodology used by CR is far from scientific, their results generally agree with more trusted sources. For example CR gives outstanding quality scores to Toyota and Lexus, and I don't believe anyone would question that those two marques are the gold standard for quality. I haven't read CR recently but in the past they praised the Boxster and listed it as the best choice when compared to the Z4 and Audi TT. I have never seen a 911 review in CR. I believe not enough CR readers own a 911 to justify a quality rating.

 

I think CR is useful if one knows nothing about an upcoming purchase; like maybe a home theater. On the occassions where I actually had some knowledge with what they were reviewing, the flaws in what they were saying were fairly obvious. I also grew tired of them holding our little incompetent stupid hands because we're basically too dumb to live and so might try to make some toast while we're in the bathtub. They're like the government for God's sake.

 

If you are going to buy a toaster or a washing machine...read Consumer Reports. For automobiles there are better places to learn.

 

Yeah, I'm one of those people that skew the CR statistics too. If my car makes some funny noise, just doesn't feel right, or if I'm really just trying to scam a free car wash (on the Lexus only <g>), I'll take it in for a warranty visit. Probably 35% of my complaints end up being resolved as "falls within specifications", another 55% end up just getting a replacement part to make me happy, and 10% end up being legitimate issues that once fixed never need to be addressed again.

Given the nature of all of the complex components that goes into cars these days there is just so much stuff that can go wrong (or get a little quirky) that cars on average are more frequently being listed as poor on CR. However, modern technology has really made the reliability significantly better (especially on things that used to crap out all of the time years ago).