Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Helpful, but mainstream re. "green" goods/alternative meds.
As a 25-year reader of and current subscriber to Consumer Reports (CR), I find the magazine quite informative and money-saving, despite some flaws, which I discuss below. CR covers a wide range of consumer goods such including automobiles, small and large home and garden appliances, consumer electronics, groceries, and more. They also cover a variety of services such as car insurance, hospital billing, mutual funds; and issues such as consumer privacy and safety. I enjoy their clear writing style, informative photos, charts that pack a lot of information into an easy to understand format, and helpful index of products covered in the past year's back issues. Each month I first check their "selling it" section on the inside back cover, where they chronicle "excesses in the world of marketing" with photos and delightfully sardonic yet understated comments.I consider CR's product testing and research of tangible consumer goods to be among their strongest assets. When I bought my car and digital camera, CR was the first place I turned for market research. The product tests, comparisons, and recommendations are first rate. Also, CR gave this tool-clueless read a good education on cordless drills. :-) CR buys all consumer goods themselves and doesn't accept gifts or advertising, which helps them maintain impartiality. CR does have some biases though. They're very luke-warm toward any type of alternative medicine. Several years ago, I laughed when they pronounced acupuncture, practiced successfully for thousands of years, a sham. Overall, they're quite mainstream, not taking into account purchasing factors increasing numbers of people now consider, such as whether an item is made with slave labor or tested on animals. Often, they'll only review a token "green" household product made of recycled paper or non-toxic ingredients. However, they do cover hybrid automobiles, but not fully electric ones. You may not always find the brand you're looking for within a product category. Their report on luggage might not cover the brand of suitcase you're evaluating, but does provide good advice on what to what to look for when choosing a suitcase. Recommendations: There's probably less of a need for CR now that one can find so many reviews and testimonials on the Internet. Yet they're fabulous for side-by-side professionally-conducted product comparisons of features and performance, as well as information of interest to consumers. If you only want to consult CR to research an occasional purchase, it may suffice to check CR out of the public library. But if you like to keep up on product technology and issues of importance to consumers, you may benefit from a subscription. When making a purchasing decision, don't automatically buy the best-rated item in the category. Carefully evaluate how the product features fit your lifestyle, plus any price/feature tradeoffs. Two years ago, I purchased the top of the line digital camera, found it difficult to use, and traded it in for an easier to use digital camera rated a bit less highly but which works better for me. Overall, despite its flaws, CR is one of my favorite magazines and I read it cover-to-cover the day it arrives in my mailbox.
Rating:  - Excellent
The kids and I got the suscription for my husband for Christmas last year. We both love it. I usually get the mail and most of the time read it first. The reveiws are great and easy to read. It's wonderful even if you don't plan on buying any big ticket items in the near future. We've used it for other people in our family that did need to purchase vaccume cleaners and the like. Wonderful. Excellent. I renewed.
Rating: - Consumer Reports Rates Products By Quality, Not Name
I have subscribed to Consumer Reports before. And I plan to again. The reason is, I have tested myself a lot of the products they rate and have found them to be very accurate in their ratings! What I found when subscribing to it before is, more well-known name-brand products are not, for the most part, better than the less known name brand products. For example, I found it interesting to find Sherwood stereo receivers were rated higher than Pioneers. And a Philips Magnavox TV has been rated higher than a Sony or JVC the same size in the same category. I learned not just to go by the name of a product. I have had Zenith TV's. What surprised me is when Consumer Reports rated the Philips Magnavox's the same size way better. And Zenith at the time was a bigger name in TV's. It has also surprised me how often they have rated the Toyota Camry even higher than a Lincoln Town Car, for example. It has helped me to make informed, intelligent decisions when buying household products. Is it any wonder my girlfriend and I now own 2 Philips Magnavox TV's instead of a Sony, JVC or Panasonic? Not at all! It has taught me what to watch for when buying products. For example, with TV's, it is the picture and sound even more than features, although both Philips have a lot of those as well. It also keeps a person informed about any new products to be available on the market before they are and their ratings. True, there have been some times they have been off on their ratings. An example is my Sharp Hi-Fi VHS VCR. It has turned out to perform better than other makes and models of Hi-Fi VCR's they rated higher. But for the most part, they are very accurate on their ratings and findings. What I like is how they do research and ratings on about every item most people use from A to Z. It is mostly inclusive, as well as clear, precise and specific. It is one magazine I highly recommend to anyone who considers quality to be more important than the name of a product.
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