This Could End Many Discussions...

[RUFFSTUFF]

Originally Posted by 2+2

Here's my most recent experience with CR. Last year I was researching which dishwasher to buy. CR liked the Bosch the best because of it's low energy and water usage and because it's quiet. It was more expensive than the other dishwashers, but still I was tempted. But when I found customer reviews on Amazon, Best Buy etc most people were very happy but quite a few people complained about it stinking. Maybe it's the best dishwasher in the lab but in the real world it doesn't use enough water. Or maybe it's just that people were expecting too much from it. I went with another brand.

As always, opinions are subject to debate. I've always wondered how many opinions it takes to make something factual... If 5 people say that dishwasher sucks, maybe it does. If 500 people say that dishwasher sucks, then the obvious choice is it sucks, unless you dig deeper to research demographics, supplier, number produced and sold, etc.

[2+2]

Originally Posted by RUFFSTUFF

As always, opinions are subject to debate. I've always wondered how many opinions it takes to make something factual... If 5 people say that dishwasher sucks, maybe it does. If 500 people say that dishwasher sucks, then the obvious choice is it sucks, unless you dig deeper to research demographics, supplier, number produced and sold, etc.

+1 In the past week I've heard 2 different people say that the plural of anecdote is data.

Funny thing about CR not being at fault if a dishwasher is a stink bomb down the road. If it washes dishes good, doesn't use much water or energy and isn't very noisy then CR has done their job recommending it imo. They've done all they can do. We can't expect them to take every product home and live with it for a year. But that's where user reviews shine. But they've got to be sorted out too. So many people on Amazon will give something 5 stars because they received it quickly or 1 star because they were hoping it would do something it wasn't intended to do. WTF?

With cars, I think CR has a lot going on. They test a lot of cars and because they send a yearly questionnaire out to their subscribers they've probably got a great database built up. The only problem that I can see there is the database just has info on subscribers and lacks car histories from other demographics. I wonder how many CR subscribers keep their cars as long as I'm planning to keep mine. I'll be changing my oil more often than CR recommends.