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Consumer Report on 2011 Challenger

3.3K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  GarageKept  
#1 ·
Yesterday, I'm at a Walgreens and I'm looking at the magazine rack. I spot the new Consumer Report Car issue with their ratings on 2011 cars. Naturally, I pick it up and go straight for the report on the 2011 Dodge Challenger. Here is the huge contradiction I noticed in their report.

Reliability: Poor (worst rating out of 5 levels)
Owner Satisfaction: Excellent (best rating out of 5 levels)

Now this makes no sense to me at all! Unless we are all morons and gluttons for punishment, if our cars were truely "Bad" in the reliability area, wouldn't our satisfaction level be low instead of high?

Motor Trend completed a 2 year test of a Challenger R/T and gave it an excellent rating in their report on reliability. In 30,000 miles the only thing they had to do was change oil.
I've had my car over a year and have 21,000 miles and have not had ANY issues with my car, either. Only oil changes @ 6k miles.

So...what I'm saying is: I believe our cars are very reliable and NOT prone to mechanical breakdowns or problems. I can guarantee you that if my car was "poor" in this area, I would not love it as much as I do!
 
#2 ·
Consumer reports sucks you should have walked by it and picked it up and thrown it in the trash!!They have to rate any domestic car bad in some ways??
 
#6 ·
Well... I have had some problems with my car ... new gas tank, replaced sun roof motor, cracked rocker panel, trunk lid not lined up with back of the car, warped rotors at 1,200 miles, transmission shifts odd once in a while... but... all in all I love this car still....

So... I guess I'd fall into that category!
 
#7 ·
Well... I have had some problems with my car ... new gas tank, replaced sun roof motor, cracked rocker panel, trunk lid not lined up with back of the car, warped rotors at 1,200 miles, transmission shifts odd once in a while... but... all in all I love this car still....

So... I guess I'd fall into that category!
You're not the only one, just check mechanical, electrical problems and Recalls, RRT's and TSB's.
 
#8 ·
CR's just caught a bunch of crap, because they were giving one makers car good reviews without even testing them, it was either Honda or Toyota, I can't remember which. CR's gets there data from people filling out a survey. It asks a bunch of questions on the car and things you have had to get fixed. I know this because I've filled them out a couple of times. The problem is, this may or may not be a realistic cross section of Challenger owners. To get real data, you have to have surveys filled out by random owners. For example, maybe the only Challenger owners that fill them out are pissed off. On the other hand, maybe only happy Camary owners fill them out, so you end up with biased data. There is no way to know.
 
#9 ·
I stopped reading and now watching them because their production quality just got so bad it was un watchable.

That sucks that they think the car is unreliable, I have 25000 on mine and the only thing that went wrong was a crimped wire in my satellite receiver. (the only other problems were directly related to the improper re-installation of the headliner which thank the Mopar Gods my new dealership took care of no questions asked)

Rain snow and heat the thing is a tank.
 
#10 ·
CR's just caught a bunch of crap, because they were giving one makers car good reviews without even testing them, it was either Honda or Toyota, I can't remember which. CR's gets there data from people filling out a survey. It asks a bunch of questions on the car and things you have had to get fixed. I know this because I've filled them out a couple of times. The problem is, this may or may not be a realistic cross section of Challenger owners. To get real data, you have to have surveys filled out by random owners. For example, maybe the only Challenger owners that fill them out are pissed off. On the other hand, maybe only happy Camary owners fill them out, so you end up with biased data. There is no way to know.
It is all based on statistics really.

The problem with your example is that if you assume that all of the Challenger owners that submitted reports were ticked off you are then assuming that only happy owners of Camrys submitted reports.

Just like a phone poll or a call to your house of 'if the election were held today who would you vote for President?' In using statistics generally speaking you will be very close to what the majority will show you.

Generally speaking every model of anything built by anyone will have a certain number of problem products and good products. The difference is what percentage of the products were good versus bad.

When you read all of the product quality control measures that Chrysler has instituted in the last three years you really wonder why they were not put in place decades ago and you can see why, in general, the vast majority of some of their products were rated low.
 
#11 ·
It is all based on statistics really.

The problem with your example is that if you assume that all of the Challenger owners that submitted reports were ticked off you are then assuming that only happy owners of Camrys submitted reports.

Just like a phone poll or a call to your house of 'if the election were held today who would you vote for President?' In using statistics generally speaking you will be very close to what the majority will show you.

Generally speaking every model of anything built by anyone will have a certain number of problem products and good products. The difference is what percentage of the products were good versus bad.

When you read all of the product quality control measures that Chrysler has instituted in the last three years you really wonder why they were not put in place decades ago and you can see why, in general, the vast majority of some of their products were rated low.

I'm just giving an example of how CR's data could be skewed. The correct way to get a true sampling would be to get something like 1000 RANDOM Challenger owners to fill out a survey. Thats not how it works, they get 1000 Challenger owners to fill them out on a voluantary basis, it seems like the last one I did was on line. The people that tend to read CR's might not be the typical Challenger owner, and the data is thereby skewed. There is no way to know, since there data is not collected on a random basis. To be honest, the data could be skewed the other way, if you had a true random sampling of the data, the cars could be worse than CR's lists.
 
#12 ·
Motor Trend completed a 2 year test of a Challenger R/T and gave it an excellent rating in their report on reliability. In 30,000 miles the only thing they had to do was change oil.
I've had my car over a year and have 21,000 miles and have not had ANY issues with my car, either. Only oil changes @ 6k miles.

After having any brand new car for a year and 21,000 miles I expect to not have to do anything else to it other than the scheduled maintenance (except maybe for a KIA). I don't think reliability for a new car these days can be rated off of that few miles. I also think that any car will have some that are exceptional and have no problems, and some that will be very problematic, even of the same model. This is why such quality control measures have to be taken, because people will expect to have no problems with a new car after they have heard of other people that have no problems.

As others have stated, the consumer reviews are very subjective and you don't know who filled them out.
 
#13 ·
I'm just giving an example of how CR's data could be skewed. The correct way to get a true sampling would be to get something like 1000 RANDOM Challenger owners to fill out a survey. Thats not how it works, they get 1000 Challenger owners to fill them out on a voluantary basis, it seems like the last one I did was on line. The people that tend to read CR's might not be the typical Challenger owner, and the data is thereby skewed. There is no way to know, since there data is not collected on a random basis. To be honest, the data could be skewed the other way, if you had a true random sampling of the data, the cars could be worse than CR's lists.
That is what JD Power does and they basically get the same results though. Right?
 
#15 ·
I like that video clip! Our Dodge Challengers are UFO's, and they are going so fast Consumer Reports can't keep up with em!
Consumer Reports is about as good as a pogo stick in a sand trap! They are biased, paid off, and prejudiced against anything made in the U.S.A. man, with inaccurate data, and inappropriate samplings of whoever from wherever!
Blue Lion "Retro Rocket"
ATL.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I don't like Consumer Reports. There strictly a by the numbers review publication. They rated my 09 Toyota very well and that car was the biggest piece of garbage I've ever owned. It had a bunch of recalls, interior panels started to rattle loudly after a while due to poor fit and finish, interior plastics scratched extremely easy, the tire jack actually gave out on me while changing a tire and the car almost crushed my hand, rubber trim on doors falling off, seat stitching started to come undone, premium JBL stereo speakers started rattling and had to be replaced 3 times. All of this in a 16,000 mile period.

Granted my Challenger hasn't exactly been a pillar a reliability either with the transmission being rebuilt, rockers cracked, door trim splitting and other minor things by 20K. But I didn't buy the Challenger for reliability or mpgs, I bought it to have a hell of a lot of fun with it and enjoy my ride to work everyday. While the Toyota may have been 'reliable', it was a boring car. I'm the kind of guy that always takes fun over boring any day.
 
#18 ·
Whats the saying;1:str: OMG erases 1000 WAY TO GO"S:smileup:.Or In my words 1 WTF kills 1000 HOLY $&*T THAT WAS AWESOME.:4-looney::gy::smileup::4-wavey:
 
#19 ·
Quality and Love are two different things & feelings. My car is certainly not perfect. I have found a few flaws that needed attention. I still love the car.

Get this - Is you wife/significant other perfect or does she have some flaws?
Perfect 10 body? Perfect health?
---Do you love her?

Now you know how the car can be judged this way.....

(To my wife who may see this - You are perfect in every way, and I love you...)

LOL