My last word on Consumer Reports

[Gross Scruggs <GScruggs@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil>]

Regarding the CU facilities and qualifications of their engineers, who can
quibble with a list of degrees and facilities?  That is not the issue.  What is
the issue is how all of this is used and for what ends.   

Example: The recent Isuzu flap.  Isuzu has sent a video to all 95-96 Trooper
owners rebutting CU findings and pointing out their poor testing procedures.  An
independent auto testing company, can't recall the name but could find it,
examined the CU tapes and data and came up with the bottom line that the Trooper
was driven differently through the slalom course than the other vehicles.  The
Trooper entered the first gate at the inside of the turn, vice the outside like
the other SUVs, thereby requiring the driver to turn the wheel nearly 700
degrees to perform the aviodance maneuver to the right.  This compares to the
approx 400 degrees of the other SUVs.  The g loadings on the Trooper were
significantly higher than those generated by the other vehicles, which too would
have lifted wheels at those lateral loadings.  

Isuzu company drivers subsequently drove the same course at higher speeds than
CU without a problem.  Ask for the tape at an Isuzu dealer.  It is a sad
inditement of the quality of the testing procedure and data gathering capability
of CU.  I've put 89k enthusiastic mi on my '92 Trooper without a scarry moment,
save going down the ice covered hill, my fault.

Recall the flap that CU caused when they claimed the Omni\Horizon was not stable
in avoidance situations?  Drive along at 45mph, pull the wheel about 180deg, let
the wheel go and don't touch it again, keep on the gas, and after a few
oscillations the car slowly spins out.  (Now the Omni/Horizon was probably one
of the least capable cars ever to be produced.  I won't say they were sh*t, but
they were certainly circling the drain.)  Anyone who drives this way deserves to
both drive an Omni/Horizon and to regularly spin the thing.  Chrysler discovered
the problem was that the weight of the steering wheel caused a flywheel effect
and was fixed by using a lighter wheel on subsequent cars.  Or of course teach
the drivers to not let go of the wheel and give up the responsibility of driving
the car.

It is, again, a very sad comment on a 'consumer' testing organization that
apparently thinks that this kind of lack of driving skill characterizes its
readership and how the American public in general is likely to drive.

As someone on the list said, and very correctly, CU is a starting place for
those who know nothing.  A statement to which I'll add, and they continue to
prove it.   Regards, Gross