The original, from January, 2004:









I'm not a big fan of CR. But found this interesting since they now rate them as good used car buys.

 

Interesting that they (like so many other reviews) state the steering is 'outdated' yet they rate handling as above average...guess they didn't expect readers to have critical thinking skills - Consumer Reports is a decent way to gain some insight and to develop a 'baseline' but I've never found them to be accurate or not accurate. My father, God-Bless, used them for every purchase decision, throwing his own sound reasoning and thought process to the wind - overall I don't think anything he did at their 'recommendation' ever worked out as 'flawlessly' as they predicted or stated...

Like so many things now a-days, folks want immediate answers from reading or other...I much prefer making my own judgements and exercising my brain a bit to decide...no offense to anyone who thinks the book is always right...

 

Very interesting thanks for posting this! To me it seems like a pretty fair review. The brief summary accurately describes the car's positive and negative traits well, albeit briefly. The gas mileage is definitely correct which leads me to think the reviewer actually drove the car.

 

I think that one has to understand the kind of person doing this review. They're not automobile designers, just average joes with an interest in cars and driving. For fuel mileage and "seat of the pants" stuff, they are pretty accurate, but when asked with a very specific question like, "what do you think about the mechanics of the steering system?" think about how accurate that info will be. None of them are qualified to make a qualitative judgement on that kind of component, so they just quote whatever they heard from somebody else.

 

Here is the newer consumer reports, in case anyone interested.

 

I haven't looked at a CR issue in a couple of decades and this reminds me why. They call that a review? And people make "informed" decisions based on this limited amount of feedback? That's laughable.

 

interesting. I also added attachments in case someone had trouble reading them.

 

Anyone have a CR covering the MB SLK? I'd like to see how they rated the ergonomics of the SLK. Would anyone be surprised if the SLK rated higher?

 

If the 1st review doesn't have a "good" rating, and the car bascially hasn't changed at all, and the newest rating is a better rating, then this means Consumer reports is full of it!!!! Which is what i've been saying this whole time!!!

 

They recommend it now because it's proven to be reliable. When it was new, there was no way for them to know. Thus they withheld recommendation. That's common for CR. Why are you getting so worked up about it?

 

I'm not getting worked up, They're just full of crap when it comes to reviewing cars....and people shouldn't trust their biased judgment!

 

You sound "worked up about it" to me.

Look, anyone who takes CR's rating as the end-all bible of used car reliability is just being ignorant. And frankly.... whether they give high praise or bad news regarding a particular car, it still doesn't mean the indivudual car you buy will follow suit.

I've been in the electronics biz for many, many years. I've sold the highest and lowest rated CR reviewed models a hundred times. I don't always agree with them but sometimes I do.

But here's what I tell my customers. You and your best friend can buy the exact same item from the same place on the same day. One of you may have endless problems as the years pass. The other, never a problem at all. This applies to best and worst CR rated items. Sometime it's just the luck (or unluck) of the draw.

 

OVERALL MPG: 22!!!

Are they high? The worst I did in my Limited was 24-25. I mean I get an average of 20mpg in the SRT and I floor it quite often.