CR rates 300C at bottom of reliability

[albi]

But what else is new, right? Those half-twits over at Consumer Reports must at some point in the future get their heads out of their a$$es and realize that not every Toyota/Honda is absolutely perfect and not every American car is garbage.

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/autos/reliable/3.html

[cmego]

Notice that the Benz's are also listed as least reliable. Problem with Consumer Reports charts are they are based on perceptions by consumers who complete their surveys. For example, they ask was the car in the shop for more than 1 day, but do distinguish between whether that was for minor paint chipping or for other "body hardware." Same goes for mechanical categories. What you find is that consumers who jump on every small issue (like us) will report more than your average Camry owner who wouldn't even change their own wiper blades. (I didn't either, but only because D-C sent me a fall savings coupon. The ones I bought a day before will wait til spring). Wanna buy a toaster or a microwave oven, look in CR. Cars and technology? Feh!

[lukeinva]

Yeah what cmego said!!

[artichoke]

A fairly good way to have fun with cars is to concentrate on the ones CR hates the most.

[srt8danno]

blah blah blah…..Consumer Reports and their lop sided car ratings


It just makes me appreciate my fine ride that much more. Thanks for sharing.

[srt8man]

Yep, avoid the ones consumer reports likes because they are boring and weak

Originally Posted by artichoke

A fairly good way to have fun with cars is to concentrate on the ones CR hates the most.

[FirstChrysler]

Originally Posted by albi

But what else is new, right? Those half-twits over at Consumer Reports must at some point in the future get their heads out of their a$$es and realize that not every Toyota/Honda is absolutely perfect and not every American car is garbage.

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/autos/reliable/3.html

Take CR reports with a grain of salt. See here:

Reliability research, alternative to CR

Essentially, the CR results very much reflect the CR readers satisfaction with their car, not its reliability. This is very subjective and not very indicative of the car.

The Ford Fusion scored very well, even above the Camry. But in reality, using objective methods, it may be that the Camry would score higher.

So why did the Fusion score well? Subjectively, I'm sure the car performed much better than the purchaser expected, so they were pleased with their purchase (especially in comparison to their previous car), and scored it well. In fact, the Fusion may have way more defects, but the buyers, being so pleased with their car, would not even consider some issues as problems.

The Pontiac Solstice scored poorly. Is this really a measurement of the fact that the buyers of that car waited months for it, paid a huge premium, and then ended up with a slow car with no trunk? Is that dissatisfaction why it rated in the wrose category, or is the car really built that poorly?

Let's look at my situation with my 300C. I love this car, but my previous 3 cars were Toyotas. The 300C is a much better looking, handling and powerful car, and I love the toys I have in the car. But the sunroof squeeked (fixed with better glue under the TSB). But now the sunroof seal is squeeking. And my seat creaks. The autowipers swipe once every so often when I start the car and its not raining. The car hesitates strongly when in reverse and sometimes when starting. Some trim pieces are not aligned properly. But because I love the car, I would rank these issues as minor if asked on a CR survey. I still enjoy driving that car!

Now, my previous 6 year old 98,000 km camry's sun roof was tight as a drum when I traded it in. No squeeks at all in the car. In fact, the only problem I had in 6 years of ownership was that the coin change tray was not secured strongly enough and could be pulled out. Comming from that car, if the 300C didn't impress me so much, I would have ranked it as very poor quality.

[OoTLink]

If I had to guess, a lot of CR reports come from people who rent cars and then go on a rant to CR, just a hunch, then again people probably go all crazy over the stupid ash tray door not closing and report reliability as bad because of it.

[NOVO]

CR cannot decide if I like my car or not, in fact I am 21 living with a big family i.e. plenty of cars to have enough experience with different makes. We change cars every for years but some of them never make it through the cycle, my first car was a 1997 M-B S500, no major problems till 200,000 km, then it got sick, survived for another 30k km. then it was time to change. Every one was against my decision to get a 300C coz it’s an American car “poor reliability”, and now It has over 50k km not a single problem, while my dad changed rims for his 2005 BMW 745 at 9k km because of alignment problems, and the transmission at just over 20k km. not to mention the other 2 s500’s 2001 and 2003 which sat in the dealer’s workshop more than our garage but now they are gone.

In conclusion I am so happy with my ride, problem free for more than 50k km that is an accomplishment for any giving make.

[ricardo]

I like the car, but I do not like rattling sound that appears on the roof area around sunroof on poor road. Sometimes fan somewhere on right starts making noise. I wish they had a better cabin filter. If there is a diesel in front of me or some polluted zone all this bad air ends up inside the car as I am running fans mostly in auto mode.