GregoryNP

Sept 2014 Consumer Reports recommends only two of eight in the Ultra Luxury Sedan field. The Testa Mode S is the only other recommended car in the field that included the MB S550. Audi A8, Audi A7, Porsche Panamera S, BMW 750LI and the Maserati Ghibli S Z4. Reliability wise, the LS460 was rated VG and the Tesla rated average although higher rated in road test score.

roadfrog

Well that pretty much just leaves the LS then, because I would not touch Tesla with a ten foot pole right now. They are on the verge of bankruptcy according to the news this morning.

slimjimtel

Tesla just signed an agreement with Panasonic to build a Gigafactory for producing their batteries in the US, they're not going anywhere!

GXAlan

Tesla won't go bankrupt. The Model S is a great "second" car.

SW17LS

Don't hold your breath lol

Apparently their finances have dramatically changed since 4 days ago:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogo...roundbreaking/

Operating at a loss still...but it won't forever then look out.

peteybabes

what I don't like is that the LS460L gets an 89 point rating now instead of a 99 point like the 2007 model. . .

are they measuring different things or are they more demanding, or is the newer LS460L truly 10 points less?

roadfrog

Or has the competition gotten stiffer??

sc4922

According to the CR website, their scoring system "was revised in spring 2014 to better reflect the state of the art for today's cars and how drivers use them". With a rating of 89, the LS is no longer in CR's top ten highest rated cars, which include the Tesla Model S (99), the new Mercedes S550 (96) and the Audi A8 L (91).

CR's website doesn't have a breakdown of their ratings, so you can't determine how they ended up with these numbers. However, the CR road test summary says that the LS "may not provide the same emotional experience that you'd get in the more sensual cabin and greater driving rewards of, say, an Audi A8, Jaguar XJ, or Mercedes-Benz S-Class." My guess is that the revised ratings system gives more weight to the handling and engaging-to-drive factors. The CR people also didn't care for the LS display screen (which they found to be cluttered) and the mouse-style controller.

CR has just two recommended cars in the ultra-luxury sedan class--the LS and the Tesla Model S. To be a "recommended car", CR requires that a car have sufficient data to show that it is of at least average reliability. The Tesla has average reliability, while the LS has much better than average reliability. The Mercedes S class is too new to have reliability ratings, and CR doesn't have sufficient reliability data for the Audi A8, the Jaguar XJ, and the Porsche Panamera.

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

The new car ratings are very different from the overall recommendations. Most of the German (and US) cars do well with the new car ratings but fall off the grid after the first couple of years. As the cars age, reliability appears to be weighted much higher than "new car smell"!

Pamperme

CR's recommendation of new cars' reliability should be taken with a grain of salt. The farthest they go back is 3 years to determine new car reliability. So even if by the 4th year onward the car starts to fall to pieces (like these newer Renault influenced Nissan Maxima's), CR still will reccomend the car. This has been true for the Murano as well; the first three years, they hold up ok, come the fourth year, Renault gremlins start hatching.

The Lexus LS 2007+ still hasn't reached the reliability prowess set by he 430 and 400, so let's hope Lexus gets its act together and keeps the full red circle commitment of its predecessors.

roadfrog

Well they do go back in the used car section where they have the charts going back about 8 years or so. It's the chart that has the red and black circles and covers powertrain,, cooling system, electrical etc. etc.

Pamperme

That's the problem. They recommend cars that with just a little more research based on past model year track records, have a history of falling apart. So that come the 4th year of ownership, the consumer is faced with mounting problems that weren't factored into the initial reliability recommendation. This doesn't encourage companies like Renault to maintain Nissan's reliability if they can make it cheaper/less reliable, so long as they get the recommendation rating from CR for the three-year-span CR uses. On the surface, this makes the Renault/Nissans appear just as reliable as Honda Accords and Toyota Camry's when in the long run they are not, thanks to Renault.

CR needs to be more diligent in calling out reliability duds that can't withstand the full 10+ year span with consistently high reliability. Many 2004+ Maxima owners learned this the hard way. Take a look:
http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/nis...4/single-page/

In fact, 20 year old maxima's (before Renault) are proving far more reliable despite being older and having 100,000+ more miles than newer Maxima's. Yet CR's "recommend" status for the newer Maximas fail to acknowledge this.

roadfrog

So....what do you REALLY think of Nissan? LOL.

Pamperme

CR did the same thing with the 2007 (or 2008?) Mercedes S class. It got a Red circle for predicted reliability and due to a redesign, the full 3 year span was forfeited in lieu of only a 1 year. This, despite the clear problems that plagued the older s classes as they aged. Needless to say, the CR's accolade was short lived because as Mercedes has consistently proved, their cars do not hold up reliably in time, and the s class's 'reccomeded' status was gone a few years later, making CR's glowing new car reliability rating a faded joke for the s class and the customers that bought them. CR repeated the same brainless stunt with the GLK. It was a red circle for reliability only to be followed by a black one the next year ( granted this was a completely new model all together so a full model history wasn't possible).

The problem with CR's reliability is that it shows a 'snapshot' picture at that point in time, and not a weighted average of accumulating data showing the RATE and the DIRECTION of a make and model's reliability trajectory. If CR did this there would be less instances where people buy cars on CR's recommendation only to discover 2years later, the car deteriorated into a piece of junk just like the model years before it. And it would also make manufactures more accountable as their products aged, because how they aged would be a direct factor on how the newest models are rated. It would be a win for the consumer all around!

SW17LS

Do you honestly think that consumers look to consumer reports before they purchase an MB S Class? A car of that price point and level of luxury is not a "pragmatic" purchase.