[X4U] Consumer Reports

[Linda]

On 9/7/05 11:31 PM, RR wrote:

> Their car reviews work fairly well because they've invested a ton of
> money to collect the statistics.  Sometimes their car reviews get
> biased because the reviewers like yugo's and horses and think the
> combustion engine is the single largest threat to the earth.  Other
> reviewers are more even handed, you just have to pay attention.

On the other hand, I have had a Civic Hybrid for more than 3 years, and have
a notebook containing information for every fillup from the day I picked it
up. My lifetime average MPG is 44.5 MPG. I'm not alone (look at
greenhybrid.com, and click the yellow "compare" button).

However, CR maintains that the Civic Hybrid only gets 26-36 MPG. In this
respect, I agree with Randy -- there's absolutely no way for me to let them
know that there's something wrong with their test, whether the flowmeter
they install interferes with the computer programming, or what... or offer
them MY information to temper their own.

So, I would disagree with RR, in that their car reviews do NOT necessarily
work "fairly well" -- I do however place a little more trust in the repair
histories. I figure they are worse-case scenarios -- people who are unhappy
are quick to share the stories! :)

-Linda