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

[RiverBrick]

fwiw, the low rating of the Versa is deserved. Unfortunately, LEAF owners tend to get with stuck with Versas as loaners. If Nissan dealers don't want to offer LEAF loaners, they should at least use Altimas.

 

[TexasEV]

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

Tesla was more than 20 percentage points higher than Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW. Even without a random sample that difference for expensive cars seems too large to attribute to selection bias.

 

[blakegallagher]

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.

Thanks for this ... this is huge. It makes me recall the Porsche executive who recently said yes they are losing lots of sales to Tesla's but they are not convinced Tesla will keep those sells when the consumers purchase again. He is under the false impression they will go back to Porsche when they are done with their amazing Model S.

 

[caddieo]

So it did not meet the buyer's expectations because he needs a gasoline fix?
Very hard to imagine.

Even just occasionally having to go the gas station (gas for my lawn mower) is too much for me.

I got an electric mower years before I got the MS.

 

[Andyw2100]

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%.

Nice. I was one of those respondents. I wonder who the 2% are :biggrin:

Presumably some of the 2% that didn't respond that they would "Definitely Buy Again" probably checked the next best option, which may have been something like "Likely To Buy Again" or even "May Buy Again."

astrotoy--can you tell us what the other response options were, assuming the article showed them, and where Tesla's numbers were with respect to those? I'm wondering if even 1% said "Definitely would not buy again", or whatever that answer option may have been.

 

[purplewalt]

I got an electric mower years before I got the MS.

Okay.
I got it, I am just behind the friggin' times.

I have electric hedger, string trimmers, edgers and chain saw (my third).
I would replace it, but it continues to work and bag all the trimmings (it's a Honda....and is probably never going to wear out).

 

[astrotoy]

Presumably some of the 2% that didn't respond that they would "Definitely Buy Again" probably checked the next best option, which may have been something like "Likely To Buy Again" or even "May Buy Again."

astrotoy--can you tell us what the other response options were, assuming the article showed them, and where Tesla's numbers were with respect to those? I'm wondering if even 1% said "Definitely would not buy again", or whatever that answer option may have been.

Unfortunately, the article doesn't give the other options. As did all subscribers, I got the survey, but it has been at least a few months, so my brain has not kept the other answers. I believe that there were several choices, from definitely would to definitely would not.

BTW, there is another bias in the answers, the CR bias. Most CR surveys have a much higher response rate than typical questionnaires, since the subscribers tend to be good CR citizens and realize that without sufficient responses, the information that CR provides would be less useful.

 

[Andyw2100]

Unfortunately, the article doesn't give the other options. As did all subscribers, I got the survey, but it has been at least a few months, so my brain has not kept the other answers. I believe that there were several choices, from definitely would to definitely would not.

Thanks for the response. Odd that they did not include the other response options. I wonder if they chose not to include them due to space limitations, and may include them if and when they publish the article online. (I believe they still have an online version available for subscribers.)

 

[artsci]

Tesla was more than 20 percentage points higher than Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW. Even without a random sample that difference for expensive cars seems too large to attribute to selection bias.

That's why I said Tesla has a whole other set of selection biases.

 

[ThosEM]

The Ego mower solved that problem for me:
http://egopowerplus.com/products/mower

Oooh! I've been looking at those and wondering if they can "cut it" on my lawn. I've only got about 6000 sqft of grass, but it is pretty thick fescue, and there's no EPA rating or superchargers yet... ;=) Any comment on the longevity of the EGO batteries?

On the error bars, I found a CR page saying they had about 600 respondent owners of 2012-2013 Model S. Assuming these were randomly selected would suggest a standard error of √(600) or about 24-25 out of 600, or 4%. So a 98% rating could have been anywhere from 94% to unanimous depending on which 600 folks were asked. The normal voter sample is 1000 people, yielding a 3% standard error. The error bars are much smaller on other car models, for which they had much larger samples.

 

[dauger]

This is from the January 2015 Consumer Reports which should be on the newsstands now. ... AFAIK, Consumer Reports doesn't put their magazine contents online for free.

Yep. Don't tell anyone I scanned it for my closest friends, so grab it while you can:

http://tesla.dauger.com/CRSatisfaction2014Tesla.PDF