Anyone concerned with Consumers "not recomended rating"?
 

Just opened Consumer Reports and they have dropped the twins from recommended to not recommended. They also state the poor quality of the BRZ/FRS resulted in significant drop in the overall brand ratings of Subaru & Scion.

Any concerns? Comments??

From the posts on this forum, we saw it coming and we all knew the risk of getting a 1st year new model. I wonder if this will change the future of the twins, sale numbers, and their re-sale value.

Consumer Report is a self-contradicting mess, they're just trying to make splashes in the automotive journalism world to stay relevant.

What was their reasoning? If they used a numerical scoring method what was their response?

Been discussed previously here.

As many agreed its tough to make a sports car to satisfy enthusiasts expectations for $26K.

Porsche refinement costs a lot more.

I don't trust anything CR puts in their magazines.

Based on feed back from new owners reporting what issues they had with their new cars. They usually list the specific breakdown of the issues in Jan. (ie engine issues vs hardware etc etc )

Lol, no. CR can't even pick a good refrigerator anymore.

Consumer Reports is 'Not Recommended'.

Then they've no valid reason other than folks are starting to think the car is too slow (it isn't). The only bad thing about it is that torque dip which was tuned in & should never be there .. And the fixable clutch engagement height. Only one of those is something I think a factory update requires. I had more issues with my STi than that...

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Don't care since I already own one and really know what the problems are or are not.

Very good, that makes non enthusist less likely to buy it... Making our cars worth more when ppl look back and think damn those were great cars with lots of potential, just like the old ae86, damn hard to find a good clean one as they are extinct now where i am and when i do see one i am excited, specially if it was well taken care of or rebuilt.

Damn those leaky tail lights taking its toll

:bellyroll:

My quip about the car is that it lacks torque at the standing start in first gear. I would rather have more torque and a with lower gear ratio (or is it higher) and therefore a longer first gear. As it is, I can't wait to get out of first. It's like a Jeep Wrangler. That's why a "close ratio" trans would be my preference. The clutch pedal engagement location is one that can be adaptable.

Just keeping up with traffic (at stop) requires a 6000 rev push just to keep up with a hockey mom in her Buick Enclave getting four kids and their hockey gear to the rink on time. The kids are saying, "Wow!, Mrs. Sierpinski, you beat that red Porsche".

Consumer Reports: Written by the Elderly for the Elderly.

That said- between the crickets, tail lights, "quirky" headunits there have been issues. I imagine the crickets issue hurt the most.

But I have not taken anything CR says seriously about cars for a while, even their survey data is hopeless skewed by their AARP era readership.

Best show in History: Matlock
Best Car: 3 year old Honda CRV driven 28 MPH in a 45 MPH zone

Consumer Reports has Orthopterophobia














(Fear of crickets for those to lazy to look it up)

Give it some time, Dude(s), give it some time.

What if instead of the crickets our cars caught on fire after random time period. Or what if they still might and its just a ticking time bomb :confused0068:

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These are subarus, not GLOCKs :-P (j.k.)

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I smile every time I start the car and I am at 15,xxx miles. That's what matters folks, how you feel. I don't trust a doctor that specializes in cancer, pediatrics, orthopedics, etc. all in one. Neither should you. Find a reliable source, that specialize in cars, true car nuts that just reviews cars and I would be more than glad to consider their opinion a viable one, whether its with or against the twins.

RE: Road & Track, Car & Driver, Automobile.

I never read consumer reports.

Ferrari, Lamborghini, Fiat, Lancia and Alfa would never have existed if everyone read consumer reports. :-D

I didn't think people actually valued CR's rating when it came to automobiles. I wonder how many owners, who bought the car for what it is, gave bad reviews about it; not 16 year old kids expecting something out of $40k+ cars.

I wonder if Consumer Reports had been favorable towards the car if there would have been a bunch of :w00t: and :thumbup: in this thread. :-)

People who buy small sport coupes don't usually turn to Consumer Reports to make their buying decisions. If someone wants a small, light, sports car they have about two choices right now, the BRZ/FRS or a Miata. The prospective buyer will turn to enthusiast forums to find out the dark and dirty secrets of each option and then make a decision.

We're all biased because we're all car enthusiasts. The CR article was probably written for people who are cross-shopping with the tC and Accord, who just want a small, efficient car with enough trunk space for trips to the grocery store.


Of course, other car magazines written by enthusiasts were all like "AARRGHHGH POWERSLIDES" but lets not forget that CR also reviews dishwashers.

Well said.
Consumer Reports serves a very good and needed purpose. So much of what we read is limited to what we are biased toward whether it is politics (MSNBC or FoxNews) (Michigan State University or University of Michigan) (Alabama or Mississippi) (SoCal or University of California). It sometimes is worthwhile to study both sides of the story and understand the differences and be better for it.

My suggestion: Stay with Car & Driver, Road & Track, Automobile and a few other serious enthusiast rags, unless, of course, you are also looking for a dishwasher.
Am I "concerned"? No.

No shits given, too busy sideways.

For kicks, I just did a quick scan of the car review section of the CR website. Most common adjectives are things like "thrifty," "roomy," "reliable," "economical", with an occasional "peppy" thrown in. Yawn.

For lots of folks, these are top car priorities, and CR seems great for helping them decide between the Accord or Camry (both fine vehicles for their functions). I'd also imagine many of those folks rarely pop their own hoods for anything other than adding windshield washer (owners manual safely in hand). That's cool -- I know lots of very lovely people like that -- happen to even be related to many of them.

On the other hand, I'm guessing most of us on this board view the twins as a great foundation -- the starting platform, not the end state -- for creating our own custom rides, with top priority on things like performance, individuality, fun, and sliding sideways around traffic circles while surprised minivan drivers pee themselves. They're relatively cheap, easy to work on, highly tolerant of having the sh*t beat out of them, fun as all hell, and still reliably get us to/from work or the supermarket.

So I'm not the least bit bothered by this CR thing -- in fact, I'm thinking of printing up a "banned by CR" window decal.

I'd buy one of those "banned by CR" decals from you, too :P

I want one of those decals ASAP

Ha Ha ..the sticker is a great idea!

But, I think their data reflects all the issues that have been discussed on this forum after the release of the twins. Yes, they are a great drivers car, but even for a new model some of the issues (Cam failures/windows/water in lights/rough idle/rattles/DI gasket failures) , just to name the big ones, are not consistent with the usual Subaru/Toyota product.

Every car review is subjective no matter how objective they make it.

I would rather have all the problems in the world reported than not. So far I haven't had any real issues *knock on wood.

Sub 3 second 0-60 family vehicles that can tow a boat and get 60mpg and pull over 1g on the skid pad and a sub 8min. lap at Nurburgring don't exist. Until then I'll just get the wife an SUV and I'll keep my FR-S.

Thus far in life, I've made zero decisions based on Consumer Reports. I don't intend to change that.

But can I powerslide my maytag dishwasher?:burnrubber:

I dont know man, I crashed my car at 70 mph and was able to walk away from the accident without even a scratch or any broken bone. How can anyone not recommend this car after what had happened to me?

i'll take one of those too! lol

Spot on, imo.

Seems that whether they continue to give Kudos to these brands or flip-flop opinions -- its effect on the market goes unnoticed. ;)

Lee, the GT86 did get an iihs top safety pick, after all ;-)

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They issue their analyses upon test results for a whole lot of products to stay relevant. Auto reviews are just one product class. Also, do they not accept advertising?????

Do their reports go "unnoticed"? I think not. One must ask how long they have been publishing - with no advertising.

I've gotten a couple surveys in the mail about the BRZ (I know I've gotten some JD Power ones, I don't recall if any were from Consumer Reports).

On those surveys, I've trashed the BRZ. I like the car, but it's got problems, and the way Subaru is treating those problems is simply not acceptable.

I got tail lights replaced under warranty. Made an appointment, dropped the car off at 8am on a Saturday (I, like many other people, work during the week). Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Get a call around 10. 'We finally brought it into the shop, they are dry'. Well, why don't you put some damn water on them? Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. No call. Finally I call them at 1pm. "Oh, the guy who is working on it is with another customer, but he'll call you back in five minutes". Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Dealership closes at 4, I get a ride there at 3:45. "Oh, we ordered them, but we must have dialed the wrong number, that's why we didn't call you. Don't worry, we'll call you when they come in"

4 weeks later, no call. I call them "Oh, the tail lights? Yeah, they're here, come on by"

I spend another hour while some slovenly mechanic replaces them, leaving grease stains all over the rear bumper that I later needed to scrub with dish soap. Within 3 days, they're leaking again, probably because the guy wasn't using a torque wrench and overtightened them.

So now I'm still fighting with Subaru on this. I went to a different dealership, they don't replace them because their records show that the TSB has already been performed on my car. They even said "The guy probably overtightened them, that makes them leak". So now I'm waiting for it to rain and then get sunny out (the situation where the leak appears), so I can show them the leak and have them replaced again.

Oh, and even though I've got crickets, and the new fix is out, the dealership is insisting "No, that's not crickets, that's the normal sound". Yeah, OK, then why does it sound exactly like crickets, why didn't it sound like that for the first 2,000 miles I had it, and why don't the new BRZs on the lot sound like that?

It's like pulling teeth to get Subaru to stand behind their product and honor their warranty, so I've slammed them for that on every customer satisfaction survey I've gotten.

Did you mean they Do Not accept advertising?