As a long time subscriber to CR I feel there are some things you ought to
know.
1- CR describes all of the tests that they do and explain why they did the
test in a certain manner.
2- CR tells what criteria led them to select a particular item as best. If the
criteria they used are not yours then don't agree. They do give enough
information so that you can make an intelligent choice based upon your own
criteria.
3- CR generally tests many items and compares them. Everyone who owns one
particular brand thinks theirs is the best but unless you bought and used all
of them side by side, how do you really know? That is what CR does.
4- It is true that CR may choose to say that one brand stood out as either
best or worst and your first hand knowledge disagrees with their conclusion.
It's statistics. If they say a car model is most likely to have a transmission
problem it doesn't mean every single car produced will have the problem, it's
just meant to give you a heads up about a potential problem more likely to
happen than with another model.
5- CR generally tests to industry standards unless they feel those standards
are not reflecting "real world" use. When they feel a higher standard or more
realistic test is called for, they do it.
6- CR takes no advertisements. Don't pooh pooh this one, read on.
TWO SHORT STORIES ... 1- Many years ago a magazine used to put out an issue
with their "Car of the year". I'm sure it helped sell a lot of cars. One day a
reported did a little snooping and found that the manufacterer of the "Car of
the year" was also the biggest car advertiser in that magazine over the past
year. This correlation held for several years.
2- A long time ago Runners World magazine gave Nike shoes a bad rating based
upon test that the magazine had conducted - Nike pulled their advertising from
the magazine.
Bottom line - CR gives you the opportunity to view competing products side by
side, something difficult if not impossible for the average consumer to do.
Their test results should be used as a guide only, they are not carved in
stone.
R
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