Bias Against Domestic Cars
in [Toyota]
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From: SMS on 25 Nov 2009 21:59 Ashton Crusher wrote: > If you paid $2000 more > for your Toyota then for a comparable Chevy you an be sure many of the > respondents are going to sugarcoat their experience, after all, they > are not going to want to face up to the fact that every Toyota > dealership has a big repair shop in the back just like every Chevy > dealer does. And there we have the extent of the proof that CR has some inherent bias. Of course the reality is that no one has ever suggested that a Toyota owner is more likely to sugar-coat their experience than a Chevy owner. In fact you could argue that the Toyota owner is more likely to complain about problems because they have higher expectations. And of course there has never been anything close to a $2000 difference in identical vehicles, identically equipped, with identical warranties, sold through different channels. There were MSRPs that were a few hundred dollars apart, and street prices that were even fewer dollars apart.
From: Ed Pawlowski on 25 Nov 2009 22:37 "SMS" <scharf.steven(a)geemail.com> wrote in message > > Of course the reality is that no one has ever suggested that a Toyota > owner is more likely to sugar-coat their experience than a Chevy owner. In > fact you could argue that the Toyota owner is more likely to complain > about problems because they have higher expectations. I'm not so sure. People often over pay for things and swear it is a great product at a great price because they don't want others to think less of them or admit they made a mistake. No different than proudly wearing a shirt with a little alligator logo while not getting caught wearing on with the Sears logo.
From: SMS on 25 Nov 2009 23:20 Ed Pawlowski wrote: > "SMS" <scharf.steven(a)geemail.com> wrote in message >> Of course the reality is that no one has ever suggested that a Toyota >> owner is more likely to sugar-coat their experience than a Chevy owner. In >> fact you could argue that the Toyota owner is more likely to complain >> about problems because they have higher expectations. > > I'm not so sure. People often over pay for things and swear it is a great > product at a great price because they don't want others to think less of > them or admit they made a mistake. No different than proudly wearing a shirt > with a little alligator logo while not getting caught wearing on with the > Sears logo. The number of people that don't want to admit that something they bought has problems, simply because they paid a high price for it, is offset by the number of people that complain more about any problems because they paid a high price for it. In any case, the number of people that are so inclined to exhibit these behaviors is very small.
From: Ed Pawlowski on 26 Nov 2009 07:18 "SMS" <scharf.steven(a)geemail.com> wrote in message > > The number of people that don't want to admit that something they bought > has problems, simply because they paid a high price for it, is offset by > the number of people that complain more about any problems because they > paid a high price for it. In any case, the number of people that are so > inclined to exhibit these behaviors is very small. I don't have figures, nor do I have the inclination to research it, but I think the number may be much higher than you think. Perhaps there is a psychology major lurking here with real numbers.
From: SMS on 26 Nov 2009 10:42
Ed Pawlowski wrote: > "SMS" <scharf.steven(a)geemail.com> wrote in message >> The number of people that don't want to admit that something they bought >> has problems, simply because they paid a high price for it, is offset by >> the number of people that complain more about any problems because they >> paid a high price for it. In any case, the number of people that are so >> inclined to exhibit these behaviors is very small. > > I don't have figures, nor do I have the inclination to research it, but I > think the number may be much higher than you think. Perhaps there is a > psychology major lurking here with real numbers. I would love to see some data that proved that a Chevy owner filling out a CR survey is more likely to put down problems that they've had, than a Toyota owner filling out the same survey. In any case, it's rather immaterial. You're not going to get any other reliability survey that has such a large sample size with such a correspondingly small margin of error. The Consumer Reports test drives and evaluations are another story. Is it bias to give more weight to reliability, safety, and value (which favors companies like Toyota and Honda)? |