Why are American cars rated so differently in JD Power studies vs. Consumer reports?

this is why i never bother reading those car reviews put up on here from other sources, because i dont know whether i can trust reading them. on the other hand, you used to have reviews of cars yourself, they were pretty damn smokin', even the review by chip on the new 3 series was not bad at all and you know they are written by dudes who tell it like it is. who would have known the RL drives like a turd? or that the G35, though it shares its platform with the 350z, is way better in looks and value than it's cousin etc.

"Consumer Reports" gets bad-mouthed in the mainstream media and they don't deserve it. In marked contrast to other magazines CR weighs their ratings very heavily with regards to "reliability."

The biggest complaint against CR is that they base their recommendations in part on subscribers' reports and sometimes they don't have very large numbers of vehicles to report on. On the other hand, J.D. Power does have that information, but it doesn't seem to get out.

Another problem with J.D. Power is their release of information on "Initial Quality." Power uses a very narrow definition of "Quality" that is heavily based on "fit and finish" without regards to design, engineering, ergonomics and many other qualities that go into making the decision to purchase a given make and model of car. And it is only based on "initial" quality. Information on long-term quality doesn't seem to get out either.

When you examine Consumer Reports ratings of vehicles and don't look at the reliability ratings, the results are pretty similar to other magazines. For example, they rank the Corvette very highly with regards to performance, but do not recommend it because of reliability problems.

(Corvette owners are, for the most part, very happy with their cars and don't seem concerned that their cars are not all that reliable. But then, almost all Corvette owners own several other cars and if the 'Vette does break down, it isn't that big of a deal to them.)

Consumer Reports really is completely independent, since they do not accept advertising and while they are kind of nerdy and often times their articles display sort of an offensive "superior" attitude, the bottom line is that they're THE BEST source of information for the kinds of cars that most people buy. Even then, take them with a grain of salt.

I must also comment that CR's practice of selling information on auto pricing, the same information that you can find for free on the websites of Kelly Blue Book or Edmund's, is a shady business practice and they should stop doing it.

Although I don't doubt the industry influences, Consumer Reports has often been the worst source of review for a product and not just cars. They are very often unprofessional because the "standards" they develop for testing a product can be arbitrary and not a good measure by which to judge the quality of a product. They often deveop these standards based on their own ideas as opposed to what the industry normally uses as a standard to evaluate a product.

The CNNMoney Staff Writer () who wrote the article makes a fundamental mistake, which frankly masks the real issues. He equates reliability with "better" - and then goes off on the reliability tangent.

Well guess what the consumer is more intelligent than that. Yes reliability is a big issue for some buyers, but "better" encompasses a whole range of considerations. Some of the other elements include economy, price, exterior styling, interior comfort and features, age, fit and finish/design execution, dealer performance, brand value and management etc etc.

Ford and GM's problems with vehicles aren't driven much by (i.) current reliability issues (ii.) performance measured by acceleration and breaking (iii.) price (iv.) fuel economy.

So what are the issues with GM and Ford, well I suggest take a look at:
AGE - their vehicles are long-in-the-tooth
BRAND - they are paying the price for past and present mismanagement (such as deep discounting)
DEALERS - they have too many dealers - so some are are undercapitalized and too small and unfocused (meaning dealer profitability as a whole for their brands is not adequate)
EXTERIOR STYLING - many of their vehicles just aren't very appealing, for example look at the entire Buick line
INTERIOR COMFORT AND FEATURES - GM and Ford are a decade or two behind the best German and Japanese manufacturers, in terms of design

So folks please, next time remember that GM and Ford need to make vehicles that are desirable and world class - and not just make the same old vehicles a little more reliable.

The expectation of participating in JD Powers is to provide positive feedback about the brand you own. Supposedly good brands will most likely get positive reviews because people tend to want to keep or raise their brands image.

People who 'participate' in consumer reports generally do it to complain about their brands.

So, Consumer Reports show the truth, while JD Powers show only a perception. Besides JD powers is pressured by OEMs to bias their reports while Consumer Reports is independent.

Please provide proof.

There both independant. If you look at their research, not all cars in any brand are highly ranked by them.