F30 328 Consumer Reports most reliable?

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/autos/2...e-cars/11.html

With less then a year of production it seems a little early for the F30 328i to win the most reliable compact sport sedan but it is a nice win for BMW none the less!

Originally Posted by tim330i

With less then a year of production it seems a little early for the F30 328i to win the most reliable compact sport sedan but it is a nice win for BMW none the less!

Either the bar is really low, or initial quality results by Consumer Reports have been excellent.

Its classified as a "compact" sports sedan? Its bigger than an E39 5-series.

Damn.

And I really liked the coffee in the BMW service lounge, too.

BJ

... most reliable luxury car - Audi A7

Whatever happened to Lexus LS?

p/s BJ, honker down & stay safe !

It just goes to show you how unreliable consumer report is. If you look up and down the list, 90% of the winners are Toyota. Its pretty save to say that most subscribers of CR have a high opinion of Toyota. The F30 and the A7 being on the list, that just makes no sense what so ever.

Originally Posted by The X Men

It just goes to show you how unreliable consumer report is. If you look up and down the list, 90% of the winners are Toyota. Its pretty save to say that most subscribers of CR have a high opinion of Toyota. The F30 and the A7 being on the list, that just makes no sense what so ever.

Consumer Reports was great before Al Gore invented the internet. Now with instant access to global information -- not so much.

Originally Posted by bayoucity

bj, honker down & stay safe !

Originally Posted by CALWATERBOY

Attachment 347803

LOL. You get my drift.

Originally Posted by pony_trekker

Consumer Reports was great before Al Gore invented the internet. Now with instant access to global information -- not so much.

Its the way they take the surveys, it makes no sense at all. The surveys should be random and the sample size should be all the same or at least close to the same. Personally, I find J D Power a bit more reliable.

Since it can only be based on the prior model, it seems pretty silly, as though CR isn't aware there's been a model change.

I actually received CR years back. When they began nagging me to renew, I thought about it and realized I had not even once seen anything useful on a product I owned or researched, in fact in those instances their analyses were naive.

Telling people a new model will be reliable because of prior models suggests they haven't made much progress with their naivety since I subscribed.

My experience with CR was short lived, soon after the Internet took over and you review products based on actual users reviews, they are so easily within reach.

I do think CR serves its core viewers well though. People consider a car just another appliance can rely on it, nothing wrong with that. Those who want more than just going from point A to point B, don't have to pay much attention to CR these days, they have other places to go, it's all good.

Way back when, I used CR to buy appliance, it serve its purpose before the days of the internet. Now a days, I find sites like Amazon and its reviews just as good as CR's and it is free. When I do research on cars, sites like this one is very helpful.

Originally Posted by dtc100

My experience with CR was short lived, soon after the Internet took over and you review products based on actual users reviews, they are so easily within reach.

I do think CR serves its core viewers well though. People consider a car just another appliance can rely on it, nothing wrong with that. Those who want more than just going from point A to point B, don't have to pay much attention to CR these days, they have other places to go, it's all good.

Hoo Rah!

CR in a nutshell. Where they shine for me: Impartial testing. True, they have a clear frame o'reference, but let's give credit where....

.

Originally Posted by tdd

Its classified as a "compact" sports sedan? Its bigger than an E39 5-series.

It's not 1995 any more. IMO a 3 series is not close to being a large car. It's our family car with one child but if we had two and were going on a driving vacation it would be too small. That said, my E90 is a good size and the F30 is marginally larger.

Originally Posted by Michael Schott

It's not 1995 any more. IMO a 3 series is not close to being a large car. It's our family car with one child but if we had two and were going on a driving vacation it would be too small. That said, my E90 is a good size and the F30 is marginally larger.

There is....a minivan....in your future.

You'll see....

Originally Posted by CALWATERBOY

There is....a minivan....in your future.

You'll see....

The 2013 Honda Odyssey Touring Elite, The Official Minivan of the BMW 3 Series™.

BJ

Originally Posted by Lorenzzo

Since it can only be based on the prior model, it seems pretty silly, as though CR isn't aware there's been a model change.
....
Telling people a new model will be reliable because of prior models suggests they haven't made much progress with their naivety since I subscribed.

They just came up with the rating after the model has been out for at least a year and after getting enough surveys from their readers. At least that's what they said. Maybe you shouldn't go with assumptions but read what they wrote.

Originally Posted by bmw_or_audi

They just came up with the rating after the model has been out for at least a year and after getting enough surveys from their readers. At least that's what they said. Maybe you shouldn't go with assumptions but read what they wrote.

Reliabilitity based on being out for at least a year and surveys from readers? Are you really serious ? Armed with only a dictionary I can evaluate if that's possible. If you need to see the methodology then that's your shortcoming.

Originally Posted by The X Men

Its the way they take the surveys, it makes no sense at all. The surveys should be random and the sample size should be all the same or at least close to the same. Personally, I find J D Power a bit more reliable.

JD Power is a joke.

Despite all its flaws, there is nothing that comes close to Consumer Reports when it comes to reliability data. They also do some tests that no one else does, such as measuring precisely highway cruising mpgs. Their 0-60mph tests are done the way a typical driver would do: mash the throttle from idle RPMs. They don't pick the best time out of a dozen clutch dumps (or brake releases for autos) at thousands of RPMs. They are also more consistent than others because they own their own track, as opposed to some other reviewers who just drive around a press car for a few hours in some foreign country on roads they are unfamiliar with. They also buy their cars from dealers, like everyone else does, so we don't get souped up cars shod with "unfair" tires or brake pads.

Yes, their scoring is kind of useless, but they give you all the data and their driving impressions, so you can judge the car for yourself best on your own metrics.

And as always, it is just one out of many other sources one should research.

Originally Posted by bmw_or_audi

JD Power is a joke.

Despite all its flaws, there is nothing that comes close to Consumer Reports when it comes to reliability data. They also do some tests that no one else does, such as measuring precisely highway cruising mpgs. Their 0-60mph tests are done the way a typical driver would do: mash the throttle from idle RPMs. They don't pick the best time out of a dozen clutch dumps (or brake releases for autos) at thousands of RPMs. They are also more consistent than others because they own their own track, as opposed to some other reviewers who just drive around a press car for a few hours in some foreign country on roads they are unfamiliar with. They also buy their cars from dealers, like everyone else does, so we don't get souped up cars shod with "unfair" tires or brake pads.

Yes, their scoring is kind of useless, but they give you all the data and their driving impressions, so you can judge the car for yourself best on your own metrics.

And as always, it is just one out of many other sources one should research.

At least JD power is a random survey and not bias survey as in CR subscribers only. My guess is that the ratio between the CR sample size for Toyota and BMW is at least a 1000 to 1. Statistically, the much smaller BMW sample size should have been thrown out.
The CR's road test are painful to read, their numbers are all over the place. As an auto enthusiast, I find their road test the least useful among all the major car magazines.
The only segment of the CR I like is the long term reliability testing, but again, the sample size is too small and they really need to combine it with long term reliability surveys outside of their reader's surveys to make the data meaningful.

Here is another reason why I find Consumer report useless when it comes to cars. I think the whole Toyota line up is in CR's best value car list of 2012:

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/autos/2...e-cars/10.html

Not very surprising. CR's main audience are people considering their cars as another appliance. So they pick one and stick to it.

If CR starts to recommend some fun cars, it's audience may start discovering the fun part of driving, not treating their cars as another appliance anymore, and stop reading CR.

Originally Posted by The X Men

My guess is that the ratio between the CR sample size for Toyota and BMW is at least a 1000 to 1. Statistically, the much smaller BMW sample size should have been thrown out.

That's your guess, followed by another guess. Any more guesses?