[cfos]

I hope no one takes offense to what I am about to say, but I love a "good" argument. I do research for a living and in the scientific community, surveys are not science. People lie and/or change their minds. Philosophically, surveys and peoples response to surveys often fall to an "appeal to authority". They really don't tell you anything other than one person's (or the summation of many people's) opinion.

Example: I took my wife to a Yankee game last month -- the one where they came back and scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th against the Royals. If asked, I would say that it was the best game I ever saw. The hotdogs were better, the air was clean, the seats were great, yada yada yada. Now, if the survey was conducted before the 9th, I was ready to leave early and I would have said how crappy our seats were, how I hated the 2 bratty, uncontrolled kids who kept kicking my seat while their parents held strictly to the non-invasion form of parenting, why did the Yankees sign Matt Lawton, etc.... you see the point? Surveys are subjective.



While I appreciate all of the posts from MNboxster who seems very knowledgable -- and who knows, I may bump into you if you are going to the U2 show t'night - You posed this in your most recent post:

"OK, consider this: You are a Marketing Company and want to produce surveys for sale to Manufacturers. What do you do? Well, first, you design a set of criteria about your company which gives the allution of credibility. You have follow-up forms which are sent out to past and prospective buyers. They are all tabulated, right? Hmmm... well, they must be right? I mean they have to right?"

You also posted this as your first post in this thread:

"I am a Founder of an Internet Marketing Firm, I know full well who JD Powers is and what they do."

Now, while I personally don't give a rat's you-know-what about JD Powers, my question is more fundamental:

Are you giving an unbiased opinion?

Sure, I read this:

"Why are the cars rated #1 by JD Powers rarely the sales leaders in their categories? I guess people just didn't see that darn survey...too bad for them, the fools.

I am not here to try and convince you. You may choose to believe me or not. I merely passed on what I know, use it as you will.

And, I have absolutely no axe to grind with JD Power, I think what they've done is brilliant! Further, I am no conspiracy buff - I believe that Elvis is dead, that Nixon did purposely erase the 18 min. of tape, that there are no UFOs and that OJ did stab his wife

They're making a ton of money for both themselves and their clients. They're generating tax revenue and jobs. And they're doing it all legally!"

So, maybe, I'm thinkin' you really don't have the axe to grind and are trying to enlighten people as to the truth behind JD Powers. Sort of a modern-day "scratchy-throat", since we know you aren't "deep throat". Regardless, let's get back to the topic. We are talking about a survey. A person who invests heavily in something will likely rate it much higher than it actually is in order to psychologically justify it's purchase -- This isn't new and is one of the main reasons people stay in fraternities; why else go through hazing, right? So, may we hypothesize that, from what we know, people are not always honest. Let's be truthful: How many people say they "truly" exercise when sitting on the table at the doctor's office? Hmmm? Do 2-3 cigars/cigarettes/month constitute smoking? Do we really eat the "healthy" diet? And what do we say...? I'm sure some people are brutally honest, but I have my doubts about everyone else.

I want to thank people for reading my rambling. It's really been a nice outlet. My concluding remarks are this:

If people are going to go in a purchase a car based on a JD Powers survey, let them. Obviosuly, these are people in favor of a big(ger) government since they can't make a decision on their own and can't do research for themselves, so they are better left to the opinions of others rather than trying to come up with their own. As for everyone else, well if you car happens to be the one that is #1 this week, Bully for you! Hopefully, your was built on a Wednesday, since statistics tell us that cars built on Wednesdays are the most reliable.