I'm having trouble finding the start of this thread:  was 
Erik Peterson on 9.may replying to somebody? was he referring 
to some Consumer Reports evaluation of VW's?  I need 
to put in my 2 cents worth on my disappointment with what 
comes out of many consumer reports (CR, CD, etc):

- as with opinion polls, interviews, surveys, courtroom 
  dramas, the questions can very much influence the answer;
  i.e. the answer could be different had the question 
  been asked differently

- whether the above is bias or not could be evaluated
  by comparing different evaluations by organizations
  with different motivations; for example how Canadians
  or Australians evaluate various car models 

- another way to hide your bias is to exclude a certain
  set from your evaluation

The point I am trying to make is that, in the case of cars
the few times I looked at "independent" US evaluations, I 
personally disagreed with the way they favored US models at 
the expense of Japanese and European ones.  Years ago I
read an evaluation of cars in France:  they made a big thing
out of enough headroom for a fashionable Parisian lady to drive
with her hat on.