Anyone concerned with Consumers "not recomended rating"?

[Extreme86]

Originally Posted by BRZnut

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.

Haven't read the article but, I'm not concerned with their "opinion(s)" on known problems on the twins. Disagree with "poor quality". Agree with @autobrz - it's not a deal-breaker.

I've subscribed to CR maybe two or three times in my lifetime and I've noticed they are often biased or often they don't test every brand or preferred model of a brand of appliance. Yeah, they do bring up pertinent issues at times but, if I subscribe to their magazine they also require me to subscribe to their website to see information - not a good deal for me as a consumer.

Not sure if I agree that their target demographic audience is "the elderly"...seems like they are more geared to the "trendy" generation of upwardly mobile people who are gonna spend money on stuff they review in their articles.

Hey, Consumer Reports!!! The 86 cars should be a car enthusiast "Recommended Buy"! But, that's OK, we prefer the badge of honor to be "Banned by Consumer Reports" cause very few of us can recommend you as relevant authority on cars!!!

[sklimo]

[Ralph Spoilsport]

CR is not an enthusiast publication. The 86 is an enthusiast car.

They didn't like the wrx, either.

I just traded in a 3 yo wrx, 34K miles for 80% of what I paid new. It was reasonably well cared for, but saw three serious winters, was never garaged. So I would not say CR is having much impact.

Shrug.

[pd]

If I were a new car buyer, I would seek as much information about a vehicle before making a purchasing decision. From my experience Consumer Reports has always provided additional valuable data points, especially around reliability. This forum being more enthusiast (and ego) driven also provides some excellent data points. However, a new car buyer who happens to read both cannot overlook that the threads under the TSB section of this forum and Consumer Reports' findings are in-line with each other.

I love my BRZ. Fortunately I haven't had any mechanical problems with it. I admit, it's really easy for me to get defensive when I read bad things about something I already own. But putting myself back in the shoes of a new car buyer, I cannot say I would feel as comfortable buying a new Toyobaru taking into consideration all the information that's out there.

[BRZfan]

From their (Consumer Reports) website:

Consumer Reports is the largest, most trusted independent product testing organization in the world. We accept no advertising, pay for all the products we test, and, as a not for profit organization, we have no shareholders.
When you subscribe to Consumer Reports, you are supporting our efforts to test and rate thousands of products and services every year, furthering our mission to empower consumers.

Originally Posted by a2cpc

Did you mean they Do Not accept advertising?

[BRZfan]

Agreed. But keep in mind that the BRZ's total annual production was probably under or about 8000 vehicles out of 84 Million vehicles built in the world in 2012.

Originally Posted by Ralph Spoilsport

CR is not an enthusiast publication. The 86 is an enthusiast car.

......So I would not say CR is having much impact.

Shrug.

[PabloN]

Originally Posted by BRZnut

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.

What puzzles me is that all those problems are common to the BRZ and the FR-S, but the Sports Car graph (page 64 of the December CR) rates FR-S at about -45% and BRZ at -108% (BTW, this is off their scale and just one step above the worst-of-all Hyundai Genesis Coupe). You'd hope their sample size is large enough that this difference isn't a statistical error. This leads me to wonder if complaints about the upgrade radio/nav system (standard in the BRZ, option in the FR-S) is part of the problem. CR does say "Of the 17 problem areas we ask about, the category including in-car electronics generated more beefs from owners of 2013 models than for any other category."

[Boxer486]

The difference is probably related to how the dealerships handled those cases.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by BRZfan

Agreed. But keep in mind that the BRZ's total annual production was probably under or about 8000 vehicles out of 84 Million vehicles built in the world in 2012.

It doesn't affect the order of magnitude you're talking about but you should know that in the first year of production there were 7,400 BRZ's sold in America alone, nearly 10,000 before the 2014 was phased in, and well over double that for the FRS.

Considering the rest of the world and early articles with Fuji Heavy Industries targeting 100,000 86's a year you might be underselling how many have been made.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10766

Subaru will produce 100,000 units annually of the BRZ and its two sister cars, the Scion FR-S and Toyota 86, at its Gunma factory in Japan.

http://kaizenfactor.wordpress.com/20...ty-is-limited/

[PabloN]

Boxer486: Wow I didn't realize there was such a difference between Subaru & Toyota service. There are 6 other cars in the rankings between the FR-S and the BRZ. If service is the difference, then it seems to me a case of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Suppose 10 people take their cars to service for condensation in a taillight. Five take their FR-Ss to Toyota and get them fixed immediately. Five take their BRZs to Subaru and they don't get fixed so they have to take them back a second time. I suppose in this case CR would say the BRZ is twice as unreliable because all they do is add up and divide numbers. If they took the time to look at what's going on it would be obvious there's no difference in the inherent reliability of the cars. Probably every one else already realizes this--I'm just slow to get the picture.

[BRZnut]

Originally Posted by autobrz

are you "concerned" because somehow your car will be physically different because of what's said about it in a magazine or if you will lose resale value or if others will think you bought a crappy car or what?

My car has been very reliable for me so far and I already know the common issues with the car. Those are relatively minor, except for the cam gear thing (hasn't happened to me) which the warranty will cover.

Yeah, it's definitely got more little problems than a corolla or camry but they are minor problems and not deal breakers. Meanwhile, enjoy the drive!

No, I'm on the fence on this one and don't have a strong opinion on CR's findings one way or another. But,I do hope it doesn't hurt resale value and hope the new model teething pains are not a sign of more serious issues to come.

[Lonewolf]

I wipe my ass with CR automotive articles and car reviews...they have as much business rating cars as I have planning weddings....

[R.S-HawK]

Anyone who takes Consumer Reports seriously, when it comes to judging a sports car, needs to just buy a Camry.

[BRZfan]

Question: From where do you get the pages?
Answer: From the waiting room on your monthly visit to your proctologist.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

I wipe my ass with CR automotive articles and car reviews...they have as much business rating cars as I have planning weddings....