CR isn't doing their own crash testing, at least not deliberately. They're either reporting gov't crash testing or IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) crash testing. Neither testing necessarily agrees with the HLDI (Highway Loss Data Institute) on insurance claims, which reflects the infinite number of ways one can crash a car, but is also skewed by the characteristics of the drivers.

The "frequency of repair" charts reflect answers to "more than 500,000" questionaires mailed to subscribers. Clearly this isn't the best way to perform a survey, but I don't know of any better one available to us, the potential customer. I'm sure VCNA has better data, but they sure aren't telling us about it! If there are 2000 850-70 owners who answer the CR survey, and 400 have had evaporator problems or electrical problems, I'd conclude that there is a problem with 850-70 evaporators or electrical parts.

Admittedly, often CR doesn't "get it". When they tested the Porsche 912 in the late 1960s and I remember reading that they panned it because of the trunk size. I'll think that of all the 911s and 912s produced from 1964 to 1989, NOT ONE sale was ever lost because of it's lack of luggage capacity! OTOH, I know that CR actually recommended the Porsche 944 when it was new, and have more recently called the Boxster "promising". So there may be hope yet.

-Uncle Olaf