1111GS

As you mentioned feedback from these forums are more valid, you should head over mbworld and read what peope say about the gles. I think if I remember correctly their experiences changed Steve’s view about the gle regardless his excellent experience with his S.

Motorola

Forum anecdotes are good for addressing and bringing awareness to a potential issue, but totally useless to gauge how widespread that issue is and how the overall reliability is for each vehicle when it's sold in the tens of thousands. Even with their smaller sample data size, CR has far more data on each vehicle than any forum user.

Anecdotes are also only worth something if it's from a credible individual. Not the easiest thing to find on the internet.

mmarshall

Exactly.

SW17LS

Hence why I have had two Chrysler Pacificas even after the first one was in the shop for over 40 days in 2.5 years!

True, and you can follow trends over time.

Yep, great example. I know from first hand experience not to discount what people on forums are saying, and how annoying it is when Fanboy elements in a forum try and silence people who have problems. I have completely stopped posting on the Pacifica forums for instance, because the Fanboyism there is so huge that any time I would try and give someone coming in looking for purchase advice my experience and thoughts I would literally get attacked for pages and pages.

Those forum experiences with the GLE and GLS seriously will impact whether or not I will get one, currently a GLS is what my wife wants.

mmarshall

More-so than just Fanboyism, it’s probably because those forums are not moderated properly. You see more or less the same thing on GM-authority and Ford authority… personal attacks without much moderator-response, although I myself post on the GM site and have never been personally attacked.

SW17LS

No doubt, they are basically not moderated at all.

One of the things I think they do well here is limit people from crapping on a model when they don't own it. That is really annoying, and they allow that to go on at MBWorld which is frustrating. People who own the car though and want to share their story with others, thats fair game and a benefit to the forum as long as it doesn't become like beating a dead horse.

1111GS

I don't read CR only view their results when needed () When I saw the lists, I thought they were overall accurate, at least the GLE at the bottom, regardless what he was saying about sample size and the reports' values while valuing more on posters from the forums. So I suggested him go read the posts from owners on mbworld which coincidently (Lol) match what what the reports say. I think he and some are confused CR reports and alike with testing/analysis to qualify a new product at a manufacturer. That is where they rigorously test the product under extreme conditions with large sample size to weed out potential problems that consumers may face. From the way it looks, some are more thorough than others. CR reports only ...report what they see. And that confirms it is informational as he said at the beginning.