TCP442

I just received my Consumer Reports 2015 Buying Guide and to my dismay I noticed that my '09 C3004M quality dropped drastically from last years report !!....My cars reliability has been excellent, and yet the CR compilation of years "09 to present dropped reliability in nearly all areas ....I wonder if this could be a misprint...Any thoughts ??.....

FAneek

are you surprised?

tekfoc

CR has always been worthless when it comes to auto's
but the dumb of the world will believe it's gospel.

Sportstick

It is neither dumb nor gospel. It is data. They have a sufficient sample size of owners who submit surveys. It is representative of that owner body's experience and is statistically reliable. The road tests are a completely different story and highly subjective based on their internal standards.

Sportstick

It is neither dumb nor gospel. It is data. They have a sufficient sample size of owners who submit surveys. It is representative of that owner body's experience and is statistically reliable. The data shows excellent reliability on some items, less-so on others. The road tests are a completely different story and highly subjective based on their internal standards.

tekfoc

Yea from so called owners.
I don't buy it.

Sportstick

Just like everyone here who claims to have a Mercedes-Benz?

Among those who subscribe to such a magazine, who are the only respondents who receive the survey, and take the time to complete a lengthy survey, my experience as a market researcher is that the incidence of false submissions (subscribers pretending to be owners....for what purpose?) is quite low and without meaningful effect on the results. There is nothing else to buy...it's just data.

spyked

Any screen shot of the 2012+ 4 cylinder model with subcategories expanded?

Thanks.

Sportstick

Not much to complain about here!





Not as good here:

spyked

Thanks. Be curious to see how those stats play out as EIS/ESL and door handle issues appear.

Interestingly enough, the V6 models don't seem terrible affected (in terms of "scores") by the 4MATIC issues.

I wonder how many CR readers also have Mercedes Benz cars. I'd think their subscribers would mostly less passionate, more sensible Toyota drivers. People buy German cars not because they have to, but because they want to.

Sportstick

In the research work I've done, Consumer Reports comes up across a wide cross-section of demo and psychographics and is the most-often mentioned 3rd party source. I've heard this from affluent import shoppers to basic economy car buyers. CR's methodology requires a sufficient sample size or they indicate lack of sample and don't report a category. Keep in mind, the data doesn't mean excellence or lack in the absolute. These are relative ratings in comparison to other vehicles in the segment and based on findings of statistically significant differences. No, I don't now and have never worked for them.

Funkwagen

Could you elaborate on 4matic issues? I'm unaware

tekfoc

almost one year with my cla 45 amg not one problem.
had to go in for a campaign that's it.
my C300 4matic has already had the transmission replaced.
and it's going back in for binding in the crank case on tight slow turns.
as for people faking having Mercedes vehicles that's another story.
never ever was a fan of CR for vehicles since 1980's.
had vehicles in the past that they rated great and had major problems with them. when it was brand spanking new.

Sportstick

A couple of points....

In every population, there is a distribution. Not everyone has the same experiences, so to achieve a representative sample, a large sample size is obtained. In our work at our company, we use approximately a sample of 100 to have a reasonable margin of error when testing for significant differences. Among those 100, some will be at one end of whatever is being measured, some at the other, with a greater mass in the middle in most cases. Your experiences may be similar to those at either end of the distributions.

Also, the CR ratings don't indicate excellence or lack of excellence. They are merely relative differences from the average. A solid red dot indicates much better than average, however, average may be good or not so good. Black indicates much worse than average with the same logic.

So, again, it's just large sample data. Really nothing to argue about. Your experiences may be similar or not, but this data represents what a statistically robust sample reported and is generally, but not totally, predictive of what the vehicle experience may be.

ezshift5

Sportstick, I appreciate your (2012 1.8) data plus your statistical perception............

Looking at the difference between your data and that of my CR "New Car Ratings and Reviews" (June 2014) with regard to the 4-cyl C Class...............................

The Extended Warranty just might prove useful (depending - of course - on cost)...........

best, ez

Sportstick

Glad to help.....the question which remains for this kind of data is whether the newer cars will "age" into having the same issues.....OR....did that particular model year have an issue (or more) which were recognized and corrected in later production? Too soon to know.