Consumer Reports On-Line Product Ratings / Beautiful Website & Excellent Functionality
Written: Feb 11 '08 (Updated Feb 12 '08)
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What is Consumer Reports On-line?
It’s an on-line portal to professional product evaluations, comparisons, & ratings. Consumer Reports is a non-profit organization which does not take corporate money or corporate freebies when assessing products or services.
In fact, if you go to their website notice something funny? There are no product ads.
The official website is:
http://www.consumerreports.org
which will automatically redirect you to:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
Website Appearance
Layout of website is extremely professional in appearance and easy to navigate.
I am familiar with building websites to an extent (it’s very complex when you start breaking down into individual components, specialties, encoding) and upon viewing the finished product (actual web pages & code used to create) believe Consumer Reports to be excellently designed for easy intuitive access by the end user. The well manipulated use of cascading style sheets and javascript (1.1) is evident upon viewing the source code.
Consumer Report Ratings
Products are rated by using the following system:
Excellent – Red Circle with white center
Very Good – Circle appears as top half red, bottom half white
Good – Circle is only white in color
Fair – Circle appears as top half white, bottom half black
Poor – Circle is entirely black in color.
A product may have a few or a lot of subcategories. Each subcategory will have a rating next to it.
Example:
Product Category: LCD TV’s 52 inch and larger
Product Name: “Sony Bravia KDL-52XBR4”
Product Subcateogry: “HD Picture Quality”
Product Score: Red circle with white center (which equals excellent)
Each “Product Name” listed under category will also have a total score and overall ranking amongst segment competitors. The cool part is you can re-arrange subcategory rankings with the click of a mouse by clicking on the “subcategory” name.
Example:
You are looking at 52 inch or larger LCD TV ratings and want to know which have the highest subcategory “Sound Quality” rating. Simply click on the “Sound Quality” subcategory header to list all products by sound quality rating from highest to lowest. By default, all products are always listed/ranked from highest to lowest overall total score which is a combination of all product subcategories.
Membership Cost
I have been a member since July 2006.
Back then it was $4.95/month for on-line access.
Now it’s $5.95 per month for membership.
I have no problem with the $1 increase in membership cost because within that time frame, the site was redesigned and additional content was made available.
You must use a credit or debit/credit card to pay for membership access. Current subscription fee plans are as follows:
$26.00 for one year access / membership auto renews
$19.00 for one year access if you already subscribe to the magazine / membership auto renews
$5.95 monthly access / membership auto renews
Member Log-in Process
Currently there is a log-in box located on the right side of the home page. Main page is not secure but immediately after typing in your username and password you are directed to a secure server where log-in is processed and then the main page reloads upon supplying necessary log-in credentials. You are now logged in and have full access to all member content.
Freebies?
There is a limited amount of content available free to anyone on the Consumer Reports web site. If you really want to get a feel for the site offerings, go there and check it out. Any information which is only available to members is clearly marked with a yellow banner containing the letters “CR”.
Personal Experience
In the Summer of 2006, my wife’s car was desperately in need of new tires. I have always been enamored with the Michelin brand (still am). I had to know what the best tire to get for her was, cause I’m a loving husband (brownie points, yeah!).
I researched Consumer Reports. They broke down tires into multiple categories like Performance & All Season. I wanted to get her a great tire for all around weather conditions and I wanted to hear it from the pro’s. I checked out the “All Season Tire” section of Consumer Reports and was surprised to find a Michelin Model was not ranked number one (cause I truly expected it to be). I saw Goodyear Assurance Triple Tred outranked Michelin X Radial in total score by a margin of “ 80 ” to “ 79 ” respectively.
The Goodyear Tire scored Excellent (Highest Possible) in the Following categories:
-Wet Braking -Dry Braking -Road Noise
It scored Very Good in the following Categories:
-Handling –Hydroplaning -Rolling Resistance -Snow Traction –Ride
I considered the Michelin X radial tire for its superior Ice Braking score. If she had chained tires on a 10,000 pound vehicle my wife would still not drive in the ice, so I decided to save a few pennies on the cheaper (and highest overall “all season” scoring) Goodyear tire.
Aside from tires, I have consulted Consumer Reports online for my Refrigerator, my Washer & Dryer, My Digital Video Camera, Informational purposes, and other items.
I greatly enjoy reading the “cars” section for information on new (and used) vehicles. Consumer Reports Magazine was critical in aiding my purchasing decision for my Honda Accord a few years ago. I’m glad to see the Accord is still a winner via Consumer Reports On-line videos, ratings, & articles.
There is just an abundant amount of vehicle information on this website (and other categories), I feel compelled to show you how much. Check out the vehicle category listing under the members section, each listing is a link to a wealth of content:
Ratings
New cars: A to Z - Ratings by category - New car selector - Minivans - Sedans - Small cars - Sporty cars - SUVs - Wagons - Crash test videos
Features
New for 2008 - Best new cars under $25,000 - Best cars for tall or short drivers - New car owner satisfaction - Brand perception survey
Compare models
Safety feature comparisons - Performance comparisons - Vehicle dimensions - Who makes the best cars? - New car hits & misses - Fuel economy - Acceleration - Safety performance
Features & options
Back to the drawing board - 4WD vs. AWD - The traction debate - CR's dream car - Drivers rate vehicle - options - 10 high tech features - Self parking Lexus LS - Most fun to drive - Most comfortable vehicles -
Vehicle qualities that count
CR's Testing
Guide to CR Ratings - How CR tests cars - The CR difference - At the test track
Road tests & comparisons
Sports sedans - Including the Cadillac CTS and BMW 328i - Chevrolet Malibu - Family sedans - Including the Honda Accord and Ford Taurus - Three-row SUVs - Chrysler minivans - Small SUVs - Luxury sedans - Ultra luxury sedans - Small Cars - Smart ForTwo
First Looks
Ford Focus - Jeep Liberty - Land Rover LR2 - Magellan Maestro GPS - Nissan Altima Hybrid - Nissan Rogue
Subaru Impreza Outback - Toyota Highlander Hybrid - Volvo XC70 AWD wagon
Pricing
Car buying survey - Auto pricing terms - Best pricing deals now - Buy better on the Web - CR Bottom Line Price - Five steps to getting the best price - How much is that car worth? - How dealers make you pay
Fuel economy guide
Best cars for fuel economy - Saving fuel: Myths & reality - Fuel-cell cars - Fuel tools - Hybrids - Alternative fuels
Additional C.R. On-line Content Information
OK, so I covered the vehicle section of Consumer Reports On-line with some detail. There is so much more to this website than vehicles.
A simple look at the home page will tell you that the following is available:
Emailed Newsletters, Publications, Testing Labs Info, Consumer Blogs
Ratings on:
Appliances, Electronics, Home and Garden, Babies and Kids, Money, Food, Health
Each of these categories have a vast subcategory listing.
What else is there?
1) Lots of professional videos (cars, dishwashers, refrigerators, vacuums, washers, computers, gps’, batteries, air purifiers, infant car seats, lead testing, strollers, auto shows, car rentals, debit cards, dark chocolates, diet ratings, etc,)
2) Lots of product pictures.
3) A vast amount of educational & informational articles
Cons
The one and only con I can honestly mention is the occasional mailing from Consumer Reports asking for a donation. Expect about one mailing approximately every year. This is a very weak con, because once per year is truly no big deal. Could you imagine if you only got one credit card offering per year? Or one refinance request per year?
Ultimate Opinion
5 star rating (of 5 possible)
$5.95 a month is a great price for the valuable professional insight and knowledge you can gain by joining this site. Membership is cheaper when purchased yearly (see "Membership Cost" section).
Want to know a killer combination towards product enlightenment?
Subscribe to Consumer Reports On-line & also check out Epinions.com for free info.
This combination just might send your product IQ through the roof!
Thanks for reading my review!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nonedude
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Mike
Location: Glassboro, NJ
Reviews written: 81
Trusted by: 15 members
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