I worked automotive retail 15 years. You give those customers what they want and move on to the ones who aren’t combative and are open to your suggestions. Or you know, you could argue with someone trying to give you money and be miserable I guess, but that doesn’t seem like the best course of action in a retail…

The entire concept of “predicted reliability score” is stupid. It is kinda like stereotyping people based on their skin color...

They’re considered credible because they are credible, I think. It’s entirely possible there are some marks on their record in the past that I don’t know about though.
I don’t think their or US News’s survey based approaches are bullshit. They have imperfect data, because that’s what it’s easy to get. Then they analyze…

But it’s a different design, a different factory, a different production methodology, a different set of workers...

CR has been doing predicted reliability scores since there was dialup (and probably before). Clickbait didn’t exist when they started doing it. And they don’t only do it with Teslas or even cars for that matter. You are imagining it is a targeted practice. It is not.

It’s more akin to having seen multiple movies by a particular director and having spoken to a few people that have seen the new movie, and making an informed estimate as to what your thoughts would be on it based upon this information.

Besides the obvious snark, they really had fun with this...

It’s a “predicted reliability score.” It is a guesstimate based on other products from the manufacturer. It’s as close as one car get under the circumstances. It’s hardly stupid and it is hardly definitive hence the word “predicted.”

Please defend that, I look forward to it.