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Last Modified : 8-3-2008
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Magazines > Consumer Reports > Item 6
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Consumer Reports
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Sales Rank: 60
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List Price: $71.87
$26.00
At Amazon
on 8-3-2008.
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About this Title
The editorial focus of this magazine is to provide information about different products to general consumers. It evaluates all products on an unchanging and thorough scale to provide a fair evaluation for individuals seeking to purchase. Consumer Reports evaluates a vast array of products ranging from automobiles to microwave ovens, from frozen dinners to insurance policies.
Product Description
The editorial focus of this magazine is to provide information about different products to general consumers. It evaluates all products on an unchanging and thorough scale to provide a fair evaluation for individuals seeking to purchase. Consumer Reports evaluates a vast array of products ranging from automobiles to microwave ovens, from frozen dinners to insurance policies.
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
At times it's hard to believe that this long-lived publication is "non-profit," as though it were performing some indispensable public service by comparing luxury cars and getting fussed up about things like a dimmer switch that isn't conveniently located. Nevertheless, it's an entertaining magazine, offering at least one feature each month that makes for a fast and fascinating read. Given the overkill of information on the internet (pages upon pages of specs and tests devoted to a single subcompact digital camera, for example, or the seemingly infinite amounts of information about stocks, finances, mutual funds), CR could be looked upon either as overkill (offering comparatively superficial product analyses) or as a more sensible, user-friendly alternative to the excessive information available online. As for the usefulness of the advice, it's a toss-up whether I've come out better by purchasing a CR "Best Buy" or by going to a low-rated (and often less expensive) model. In the case of some American automobiles that were trashed by CR or which received nothing but those "black boxes," I've often done well by selecting the condemned product (a Mercury automobile that lasted me 15 years comes readily to mind). The magazine's shortcomings: 1. Frequently, the models reviewed by CR have been phased out, updated, or replaced by the time the magazine publishes its ratings; 2. Much of the material is simply no longer as useful: the ratings of mutual funds, for example. You'll find the same and more in any number of popular financial publications or free of charge on sites like Yahoo, though past history of a fund's performance can mean little; 3. All of the warnings and advice about buying cars, as if the consumer really has significant control of the cost let alone the time to spend hours in the quest to lower a salesman's profit margin by a few extra dollars; 4. The not inconsiderable extra charges the magazine assesses for their car pricings, or for special issues on health, or for the use of their website; 5. The frequent return appearances by certain products, as though we can't go a month without another review of flat-panel TV sets. In short, CR used to be more valuable before the consumer became the wary, fully-informed, self-appointed expert that he is today (notice the number of reviews on Amazon that begin "I researched TVs for six months before purchasing this one." If that's what "research" has come to mean, no wonder we're constantly losing ground to other nations that still actually create and make stuff). For many Americans, devoting all of one's spare time to studying commodities and material items has apparently even taken priority over using them. In short, it's time for Consumer Reports to become more critical of "consumerism" itself. Rather than educate people to be better consumers, how about a few provocative articles suggesting how consumers can be better people?
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Consumer Reports
Available from Amazon
Price: $26.00
Updated on 8-3-2008.
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