Sorry if I should already know this but I haven't been active on the board in a while. Anyway, I'm going back to my stock 16" Sport wheels for the remainder of my lease (6/03) and want to sell my 17" Avus's. My boss has a 4.2 and has expressed interest, although I'm sure he won't want to do any mods to accomodate them. I posted on the wheel forum with no responses.

Re: Consumer Reports, I am intimately familiar with the people at their Auto Test Division and their testing procedures. Maybe you won't always agree with their findings based on your personal experience with a particular product or model but they are all big time car enthusiasts who go through great pains to provide accurate information. I have never found their automotive reviews off the mark.

 

Frank ! Long time no speak ! Good to hear from you.

 

Thanks Red!

 

How much do you wanna sell the set for? WIll they fit on a 2.7T? Condition?

 

I don't always agree with their test drive assessments. Up until recently, the E320 Wagon was the best car they ever tested...it is a boring car to drive. They also liked the Cadilac Catera, which I thought was also boring. It is all the personal taste of the driver, even those who do the test drives. SOme of their assessments are totally oposite of what you might read in car and driver or road and track, or auto week. The bottom line is you have to drive what you like and do not rely on someone else to tell you what you should like. The value of CR is informing you about reliability experiences from actual drivers, crash test worthiness, safety features and manuevering, and true size and dimensions from a practicle perspective for each vehicle.

 

I tend to agree with you regarding Consumer Reports, although I occasionally rinkle the forehead. I also think the surveys they base reliability figures on are, at times, very biased or inaccurate (memory working today? in my case).

 

Your car looks GREAT JP!

CR's reliability studies are not biased, in that the process they use to produce those results are purely scientific, based on reader surveys. They have professional statisticians that labor extensively to provide accurate info. Just like we can disagree with any publication's editorial, you can disagree with their's as well.

What about my question??!! ;-)

 

What kind of condition are they in?

Do they include tires and if so, what are they and what condition are they in?

I assume they will fit the 2.7T since the S4 has the same front brakes as the 2.7. True?

 

it is an inherently biased population. It is not a random survey of all car buyers, just those who subscribe to CR. If the subscriber base plus the responders to surveys are truly random and representative of the whole population, then the survey could be at least not biased from a randomization standpoint.
But even if random, the questionairre is terrible. It gives equal weight to very minor problems (eg. burned out headlight) and major ones (eg. fried electrical system with innumerable glitches). It also assumes that the responder understands what the problem is with the car...which is a huge stretch into fantasyland. My prediction is that fewer than 10% of people really know what system was screwed up when they brought their car in for repair and whether it was something minor or severe.
I just spoke to an old friend who told me her husband is having lots of problems with their 4 1/2 year old A4 (like it was the end of the world). Turns out it needs a new battery, new tires, and has used 1/2 quart of oil in the last 5000 miles. "My Toyota never had this many problems." !!!--According to CR, this A4 would have electrical problems, engine problems, and ???suspension problems.
I can't prove their results are innaccurate, but their methods of obtaining data are biased and flawed--severely.
BTW: I am one of those fools who have filled out their survey (several times) so I know how it is done...it's not scientific (at least not "good" science).

 

... they ask questions that pertain only to reliability issues. (I've completed several of CR's surveys myself.)

I think what you're complaining about is: 1)the focus on the 'appliance' nature of a car; and 2) the perhaps overbroad statistical approach.

I've found CR's surveys very handy. For the A6, they noted the fuel system and electrical problems. I found AudiWorld which gave me the opportunity to hear exactly what the problems were from actual owners.

You (collectively) convinced me that they weren't overly serious, and I bought mine a couple months later.

Take CR's work for what it is... YMMV