🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20783@rpp386.lonestar.org> jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh  
II) writes:
> In article <1992May13.152708.20443@awdprime.austin.ibm.com>,  
john@johniac.austin.ibm.com (John Iacoletti) writes:
> > With all due respect to the AG of Florida (the state that gave us Bob
> > Martinez), one look at the April issue of Consumer Reports auto
> > maintenance section (which is also based on actual complaints) shows
> > a proliferation of black marks on all the American makes, and red
> > marks on all of the Japanese makes (red=good).
>  
> Consumer Reports is not what would be called a "scientific study".  It
> is a self-selected survey.  It's like the polls on the TV stations.
> 
> Imagine that I think my car is wonderful.  Imagine that my car has had
> 3 problems in the last year, but that I think 5 is acceptable.  Will I
> respond to a survey and say my car is lousey?  More likely I will down
> play the severity of those 3 problems if I respond at all.  The problem
> with the Consumer Reports surveys is that they allow people who think
> that 1 problem is too many to rate a car poorly, and for the guy who
> thinks 5 is OK to rate a car well.
> 
> Well, this is what happens with American made cars.  It's like when
> the head of GM took a bunch of congressmen and showed them a bunch of
> American cars and a bunch of Japanese cars and asked which got the
> better gas milage.  Their answer was that the Japanese cars did.  But
> that was wrong - as I explained earlier, the Cadillac V8 is a more
> fuel efficient engine than the V6 in the Japanese cars.

Well,... I just HAD to comment here.  Either John doesn't read CR, or he  
doesn't read the information on how they do their studies... For the cars:
They rate the cars based on number of reported problems in a specific  
mechanical/trim area of the vehicle.  The "ratings" are then based on the  
"average" number of problems for that particular area, versus the actual for  
that car.  (ie. if I had 10 problems with the electrical system on my  
Oldsmobile, and the average for all cars (in the survey) was 5, I would have  
a dark black circle (far below average) on my electrical system rating.  If I  
had only 2 problems then I would have a solid red circle (far above  
average).)  CR, makes a disclaimer explaining how they collect results, and  
how they make their evaluations; I suggest you read it and decide for  
yourself.

As far as who gets the better fuel economy... Whichever car goes farther on a  
single gallon of gas gets the best GAS MILEAGE.  Whichever car gets more  
torque/horsepower/foot-pounds/bullshit per gallon doesn't really matter  
unless you need that much umph to push the heavy beast around.

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|Internet: robin@pencom.com                                                 |
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