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Consumer Reports Jan 2015 - Tesla: Car that Owners Love Most

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astrotoy

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Supporting Member
Jan 24, 2013
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SF Bay Area
In the new issue of CR, they released a results of a subscriber survey: Would you buy your car again? For the answer "Definitely Buy Again" Tesla tops the list of all cars and brands at 98%. The next closest car is the Corvette Stingray with 95% and then the Porsche Cayman and Boxter at 91%.The average score for all cars is around 70%. In general, hybrids and electrics did better than average, with the Volt at 85% next after Tesla Model S in that category. Other comparisons are Prius at 82% and Leaf at 77%. For Luxury Cars, the winner in that category was the MB E Class Diesel 88%, with Audi A6,7,8 all 84%, MB S Class 81%, Porsche Panamera 80% and BMW 7 Series 66%. The lowest scores were Nissan Sentra, Versa, Kio Rio and Jeep Compass, all in the 40's.

For overall brands, 1. Tesla 98%, 2. Porsche 87%, 3. Audi 79%, 4. MB and Lexus 76%, 15. BMW 71%. The last three were Nissan 61%, Smart 58%, Mitsubishi 55%.

Unlike the 99 score that CR gave the Model S, the 98% score is strictly the results of their subscriber questionnaire.
 
That is an unusual story. Did he say what disappointed him so about the Model S? What Model Porsche did he buy?
It's some sort of 911 variant, but I haven't been close enough to tell which one.

I think he really had no clue what he was getting into and bought it because it was cool. This was probably 18 months ago, well before we got any Superchargers in Texas, so maybe it was just too soon.

I do still see his HPWC in the garage when I drive by -- that was an ordeal! The electrician took most of the day to install it.
 
"98%", huh? What are the error bars on those data?

I'm not insinuating that it might be a lot lower than 98 - rather, the opposite.

No error bars, but I don't think there should be. It is a complete survey of all who returned questionnaires, not a statistical sample of the readership. If anything, all the numbers are rounded to the closest whole percent.

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Link?????

No link. This is from the January 2015 Consumer Reports which should be on the newsstands now. I subscribe and the info came from my copy which arrived today. AFAIK, Consumer Reports doesn't put their magazine contents online for free. They do have an online subscription with the same content as the published mag. Occasionally I have seen press releases, like when they rated the MS at 99, but it didn't include the entire test results.
 
As I Tesla owner and someone whose business relies on high-quality survey research, I regret to note that these surveys of owner satisfaction are garbage, and that includes CR, JD Power, etc.

To be reliable such surveys must be a random sample (every nth name) of the entire owner population. This is a much more costly and complex sampling scheme, which is why nobody does it that way. Otherwise the results are biased in a myriad of ways that reflect owner loyalty and a host of other factors that cannot be controlled for. As proud as I am that Tesla scored so well I also have to recognize that the results are biased.
 
It's some sort of 911 variant, but I haven't been close enough to tell which one.

I think he really had no clue what he was getting into and bought it because it was cool. This was probably 18 months ago, well before we got any Superchargers in Texas, so maybe it was just too soon.

I do still see his HPWC in the garage when I drive by -- that was an ordeal! The electrician took most of the day to install it.
This car doesn't take gas too? I thought it was like the Fisker only it could go farther on the battery. No one told me I couldn't put gas into it.
 
"98%", huh? What are the error bars on those data?

I'm not insinuating that it might be a lot lower than 98 - rather, the opposite.

98% on a happiness survey borders on incredible. Not only that but you are happy enough to buy another one. I would go so far to say that this breaks the statistical norm. It's perfectly normal for someone to be disappointed with something that causes them to say it's not right for them.

This happened on last years survey too. That was a survey of 600 owners. You can always say tat new ownership swayed the numbers for last year. Hitting a home run for the second year in row says a whole lot more.
 
I have been a lifelong Consumer Reports Subscriber - and I did respond to their survey. Wonder how many people responded? How did you find the 600 number from last year?

I'm not surprised by the results - I have been on eBay all day checking out the used P85's and I am amazed I what you can get for $80K one year later. (Verses the $117K I paid last December)
 
But there is a selection bias - much like these forums, you get the really happy and the really cranky who take the time to respond. I wonder what their response rate actually is.

And the selection bias varies from brand to brand, another reason why such surveys should be considered with a grain of salt. For example, more expensive cars have higher pro-brand selection bias because owners sublimiminally justify spending more by rating them higher.

The biases for Tesla introduce a whole set of other factors. I should know -- I have them all:)