I fully understand that surveys can be, and are, flawed. It's also true that a survey can be intentionally slanted to help obtain the results desired.
It's been said in this thread that JDP intentionally slants its results in order to sale them to the manufacturers. What I can't reconcile is that if this were the case, we'd have multiple manufacturers claiming that their brand/car is #1 in, say, initial quality. After all, JDP would be selling their tweaked results to more than one company, right? A company could request a #1 rating, pay their money, and JDP would provide it.
That doesn't seem to happen. Instead, it seems that JDP conducts the survey, then offers it's result to the manufacturers to use, for a price. The ones that come in #8 instead of #1 don't buy the results.
I suppose one could argue that JDP sells a single tweaked result to the highest bidder. Or that they take money, under the table, from a company in order to pre-determine the outcome. But I'll bet that these activities are indeed illegal, and that finger hasn't been pointed at JDP... yet.
In the end, all the ratings in the world from JDP, CR, etc. and test results from the myriad of car rags are just about meaningless when the heart starts beating, the hands are shaking, and the checkbook is on the table. You're buying it because you
want it, not because of some glossy placard on the hood in the showroom.
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