Consumer Reports: Deere Tractor over Gravely ZTR?

[rdln]

And have you seen the televised version of Consumer Digest?

The call it ATV television.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( if someone tells you that Consumer Reports is bogus because it reports the brand they are selling as being repair prone, I'd find a different dealer because that dealer is flay lying to you )</font>

Maybe, but not necessarily so, unless you know more details. Suppose I buy a car that goes back to dealer 5 times for repairs or recalls, such as my Windstar did. Everything worked fine, but they (1) added an additional ground strap for the rear air-conditioner, (2) checked the trailer wiring for corrosion and put an anti-corrosive coating on it (I don't have a trailer hitch), (3) replaced the cover over the windshield wiper motor (don't know why since it worked fine), (4) replaced the front floor mats (looked just like the originals to me), and (5) replaced a seat belt buckle (I don't know what the difference was from the original). Now suppose you buy a different brand and blow the engine, stranded on the freeway, etc. Now mine has a repair frequency of 5 and yours only has one. Who got the better car? Well Consumer Reports will probably say you did, and will for sure say you did if yours was a Toyota. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I subscribed to Consumer Reports for awhile and dropped my subscription over 20 years ago when I realized what a waste of time it was. Well, recently they sent me an offer in the mail; one sample monthly magazine and two books and when you receive the bill, if you don't think it's worth it, to write "CANCEL" on the bill, return it, and keep the free books. I got the one magazine and the bill on the same day, and a note that the books were enroute. After reading last month's issue, I wrote "CANCEL" on the bill and returned it. Now a few days ago, I received the issue mentioned in this thread; still no sign of the books. And although I've read through the two issues, I don't even consider them worthwhile for recreational reading; much less to make a purchasing decision.

Well, it's been 4 months now and they're still dunning me trying to get me to pay for their magazine. I responded very promptly that after looking at one issue I was not interested and wrote "CANCEL" on the bill, as they instructed. However, they sent a new magazine, and a bill, every month for 4 months, and they continue to send me letters and bills, wanting me to pay $20 for a subscription. I continue to send them back with the bill marked "CANCEL" and a note telling them I DO NOT want their magazine and WILL NOT pay for it. They sure are persistent, so I've quit paying for postage and send their bills back "postage due".

And that's the kind of people who expect you to give any credibility to their opinions as to the quality of different products.

 

[Hard]

Are you ok bird? Something wrong with your clicking finger?? Take a break.

 

[Dargo]

Yeesh, that's gotta be a record; six posts in a row saying the same thing. Tell me it's some sort of a software glitch, and not Bird upping his post count by posting each post six times. Bird says that CR is persistant, but I think he has them beat.

 

[Bird]

I sure don't need to up my count. I have an idea what caused the problem, though where computers are concerned, I'm never sure. At any rate, it was unintentional and I think it was my fault. So I removed some of them.

 

[klm]

Guess if you don't know better than to buy a YUGO or 350 GM gas/diesel maybe Consumer Reports could help. I quit takeing it years ago. I have had several new cars, trucks tractors and lawnmowers and they never contacted me for my maintenance history.

 

[Fordlords]

I subscibed to the Consumer Reports Online for a little while. It can be considered useful for researching a purchase to an extent, but I would not accept eveything they publish as gospel or use it as my main influence as to wheather or not I buy a certain product. I think many others agree to this too as not everyone on earth has a Toyota minivan in the garage and a John Deere in the shed


-Fordlords-

 

[IslandTractor]

I've never trusted Consumer Reports recommendations much but I agree with Dargo's point that the repair records they report are statistically derived from subscriber's reporting and useful. Whatever the weaknesses in that data are they are by far the least biased and generally available service data available to the general public. Bird's original example of taking his Windstar in to the shop 5 times for non critical or nonservice related issues would not actually bias the data against the Windstar as CR collects data by specific issues like steering problem, engine etc. They don't have a catagory for floor mats so things like that don't count.