This time they've attacked the Mitsubishi Montero Limited. Notice how they always condemn Japanese vehicles.

1988.5 Zuk: OD Green Paint, ARB Bumper, OME Lift, 1.6 engine, ISKY DP Cam, Weber Carb, CF II Clutch, 4.16 Transfer, etc.

I thought they were smarter than that after Isuzu Kicked them all over the block with their false claims against the '95 Trooper. They lost in court big time. I hope Mitsubishi sues the snot out of them.

JEEPN
Winter Harbor, Maine
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled, It's a Jeep, Chevy, IHC kinda thing!
'88.5 Zuki, 5" Calmini, Locked, Swamped, Rolled, and just generally broken in right!

got to have a scape goat to balance out the rolly polly blazers chevey is selling .
zukikid

proud owner of the SUPER stock zuk. :-)

ZUKI SHOULD HAVE SUED THEM IN 88? THERE MIGHT BE MORE NEW SAMMYS TO BE HAD

88 zuki,s/r,header,1600,locked in the rear and weber carb. with mitsu seats and 2"inch pipe
87 zuk spoa (new project)
IF GOD IS YOUR CO-PILOT SWAP SEATS

"Rolly Polly Blazers?" Shoot, between the exploding tires and the poor rear suspensions you can't keep a Ford Explorer on the road! Has Consumer Reports trashed Firestone of Ford?

Give it to me; I'll break it.

I read CR when I bought my Tacoma just for the heck of it. They actually gave it a bad rating because it rode like a truck.


Mark
1986 Suzuki Samurai soft-top
1999 Toyota Tacoma
http://members.home.net/marvinmartian

Good point Capn. I haven't heard anything about them, now there's the real danger.

JEEPN
Winter Harbor, Maine
'81 CJ-8 Scrambled, It's a Jeep, Chevy, IHC kinda thing!
'88.5 Zuki, 5" Calmini, Locked, Swamped, Rolled, and just generally broken in right!

Godzuk, Suzuki did sue them back then but they lost in court.

Well it looks like Consumer Reports must be hurting for money again. Remember, they have to keep conjuring up attention-grabbing stories in order to sell enough magazines to fund themselves, since they won't accept advertisment revenue to allow for a secure source of income that encourages fair, unbiased reviews.

They made gobs of money at Suzuki's expense in 1988.

They made gobs of money at Isuzu's expense in 1996.

They'll be making gobs of money at Mitsubishi's expense in 2001.

A quote from their article describing the test shows the fault in their testing procedure: <blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

Our avoidance maneuvers are designed to simulate real-world emergencies in which a driver steers sharply left into an adjacent lane--to avoid hitting an obstacle or person in the road--then quickly back to the right to avoid oncoming traffic, and left again into the original lane.

<hr></blockquote>

The problem with this is that in the real world, drivers won't subject their vehicles to any more than 0.2-0.3 lateral G's in normal driving, and no more than 0.4-0.5 lateral G's in an emergency-avoidance maneuver. It's been proven in simulations and in real-world analysis of drivers' habits.

There is much too significant a chance for testing error to occur in CR's "scientific" rollover testing method. One of the main points that won Isuzu's case against CR was that the path of the Trooper through the cones compared to that of the other SUV's was completely different. Through analysis of the paths taken through the cones, it was found that while the other SUV's were not subjected to anymore than 0.7 lateral G's in CR's test, the Trooper was subjected to 1.2 G's. Something would have been wrong if it didn't tip up!

Fair and scientific testing? Not a chance. They tried 47 times to get the Samurai to tip up before finally getting it to do so, resulting in cheers and applause from the CR staff being caught on tape. They were on a (difficult) mission and had finally reached their goal, so they cheered.

If you look closely at Consumer Reports' stories about the Samurai, Trooper, and Montero, you can see how they have learned how to cover their asses. They are fully expecting to be sued over this as they have in the past, so in reading their latest article it is plainly obvious the extent to which they are sugar-coating their "mission" and trying to eliminate any source of criticism from their reported testing methods.

They play on people's fears, making lots of money in the process but also taking advantage of their trust from the public. The problem, though, is that most people simply aren't smart enough to think for themselves and to consider Consumer Reports' motives; most of the public takes everything printed in CR's pages as The Word Of God, and don't question it.

Read the article for yourself at http://www.consumerreports.org/static/0107mit0.html

-- Geoff Beasley

Since the fear of flipping my Samurai has been greatly increased due to Consumer Reports article I have just decided to hit whatever's in front of me. Moral of the story, "Get the hell out of the way." It's also called natural selection....

And, if Kelsey Gramer can roll a Dodge Viper in his driveway than anything can flip...

Give it to me; I'll break it.