Shoud You Trust Consumer Reports?

I was recently reminded of Consumer Reports testing of the Suzuki Samurai SUV. CR put the vehicle through it's 'standard testing' and ruled that it was unsafe and people should not buy it. Suzuki sued and through the process of discovery they acquired copies of the tests that CR conducted. The six videos below show how CR apparently manipulated their findings to provide them with press conference material, regardless of accuracy.

I questioned CR's motivation even more when I sold cars for a few years. There would be CR reviews of a vehicle and I would find multiple instances where the review did not match what I could see with my own eyes (both with my brand and competitors). The more I compared their reviews with my experience the more I realized that I could not trust them.

All of this to say, “don't trust something just because it is in a magazine”. Businesses are motivated by money. Whether it is ad revenue or subscription sales, they are in a position to have to do things to bring in the $ necessary to pay their expenses. Nothing sells as much as controversy so publications are frequently put in a position to create it if they cannot find it in the real world. I don't know if this is what when on in the case of the Samurai, but their test results sure look that way.

Video 1: Time-2:55
Video 2: Time-3:31
Video 3: Time-3:04
Video 4: Time-2:39
Video 5: Time-1:00
Video 6: Time-1:49