Originally posted by DFT:
If I average two visits to the shop every year for a repair or recall does this mean the very most reliable cars visit once a year?. With CR it is very difficult to see where the reliabilty of your own car fits into their rating system. Is your experience average ? Better? Worse than their population of survey respondents? Who knows?



Thats exactly what I'd like to know..... Another problem is you don't know if the survey respondants care for their vehicles properly. There are people in the world who don't change their oil (more than you would think)....and then run crying to consumer reports about their engine trouble. Certain vehicles tend to appeal to certain demographic groups because of price or whatever and I have long suspected that there are certain demographic groups who are more likely to neglect/abuse their vehicles for whatever reason.
Anyway thats my 2 cents about Consumer Reports. Sorry to hear about your Mystique troubles .....going to the stealership can be a real PITA. As much as I love my Mystique I think Ford could have tried a little bit harder. With just a little more effort in the quality department I think Contiques could have easily held their own against Camry, Accord, Altima, etc.

98 Mystique LS DOB 06/97