Consumer Reports | 
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| Publisher: Consumer Reports
Category: Magazine
List Price: $71.87
Buy New: $26.00
You Save: $45.87 (64%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 90
Format: Magazine Subscription
Type: Consumer magazine
Subscription Issues: 12
Subscription Length: 12 Months
Issues Per Year: 12
First Issue Lead Time: 6-10 Weeks
ASIN: B000W3MB48
Release Date: November 23, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 months
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Product Description
The editorial focus of this magazine is to provide information about different products to general consumers. It evaluates all products on an unchanging and thorough scale to provide a fair evaluation for individuals seeking to purchase. Consumer Reports evaluates a vast array of products ranging from automobiles to microwave ovens, from frozen dinners to insurance policies.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 More entertaining than practical September 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've taken this magazine for years and it's time for a renewal again, so says the latest snail-mail reminder from CR. However, I am rethinking "renewal" since--surprise--I get the best reviews and recommendations from Amazon.com users' reviews, along with other online sites that provide product reviews! As several reviewers of CR have pointed out, CR seems to be more automobile-orientated and also tends to repeat reviews of certain products way too often (vacuum cleaners come to mind).
I have decided to NOT renew my CR subscription and, instead, I will continue to rely upon customers' reviews from Amazon.com and other online sources. If I feel deprived from CR, I'll seriously look at the online membership option. I do all of my product research online, anyway...
My conclusion, therefore, is: Consumers Report is strictly an entertainment vehicle and has little value in helping me make informed decisions when purchasing products. I do not like the yearly CR-selected products' evaluation forms that CR sends out, which are coupled with CR's request for donations/money. I don't participate in this event...as I assume many others do not, either.
 great mag August 4, 2008
need to buy something? is it a bargain or a dud this mag helps alot
 The American Way June 9, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
At times it's hard to believe that this long-lived publication is "non-profit," as though it were performing some indispensable public service by comparing luxury cars and getting fussed up about things like a dimmer switch that isn't conveniently located. Nevertheless, it's an entertaining magazine, offering at least one feature each month that makes for a fast and fascinating read. Given the overkill of information on the internet (pages upon pages of specs and tests devoted to a single subcompact digital camera, for example, or the seemingly infinite amounts of information about stocks, finances, mutual funds), CR could be looked upon either as overkill (offering comparatively superficial product analyses) or as a more sensible, user-friendly alternative to the excessive information available online.
As for the usefulness of the advice, it's a toss-up whether I've come out better by purchasing a CR "Best Buy" or by going to a low-rated (and often less expensive) model. In the case of some American automobiles that were trashed by CR or which received nothing but those "black boxes," I've often done well by selecting the condemned product (a Mercury automobile that lasted me 15 years comes readily to mind).
The magazine's shortcomings: 1. Frequently, the models reviewed by CR have been phased out, updated, or replaced by the time the magazine publishes its ratings; 2. Much of the material is simply no longer as useful: the ratings of mutual funds, for example. You'll find the same and more in any number of popular financial publications or free of charge on sites like Yahoo, though past history of a fund's performance can mean little; 3. All of the warnings and advice about buying cars, as if the consumer really has significant control of the cost let alone the time to spend hours in the quest to lower a salesman's profit margin by a few extra dollars; 4. The not inconsiderable extra charges the magazine assesses for their car pricings, or for special issues on health, or for the use of their website; 5. The frequent return appearances by certain products, as though we can't go a month without another review of flat-panel TV sets.
In short, CR used to be more valuable before the consumer became the wary, fully-informed, self-appointed expert that he is today (notice the number of reviews on Amazon that begin "I researched TVs for six months before purchasing this one." If that's what "research" has come to mean, no wonder we're constantly losing ground to other nations that still actually create and make stuff). For many Americans, devoting all of one's spare time to studying commodities and material items has apparently even taken priority over using them.
In short, it's time for Consumer Reports to become more critical of "consumerism" itself. Rather than educate people to be better consumers, how about a few provocative articles suggesting how consumers can be better people?
Excellent magazine May 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not sure how I bought anything without this or why anyone would. Great reviews and great information. Buy it, you will not regret it.
Turn to this before turning over your money April 22, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Growing up, it seems there was always a Consumer Reports magazine within easy reach somewhere around the house. CR is one of those magazines that's just easy to pick up and skim through and the latest copy always found it's way to the "Mom's bathroom" magazine collection.
While visiting a couple of years ago, I needed to use the bathroom but raided mom's bathroom first for the latest copy of CR and didn't find it. So I checked the other places; bench in dining room-nope, next to the comfortable chair in living room--nope, on top of the microwave-nope, their bedside tables-nope nope.
I finally had to ask where it was and Mom said Dad stopped the subscription. It's strange but I felt really sad on hearing that. Dad was the type that would do his research before spending his hard earned money. When me or my brothers noticed him concentrating over a CR magazine, we'd get excited because he's about to buy something!! He also taught me that if I ever needed to make a major purchase, do your research and don't be afraid to spend the extra money if it means getting a better product because it will save you money in the long run. All appliances in the home was either a "CR Best Buy" or better. As a teen, I would turn to that for buying a new portable cassette player or even my first used car.
That next Christmas he opened up an envelope from me and I had printed out a picture of the front of a CR magazine with the words, "Your subscription will be arriving shortly." He smiled and said he really missed reading it. I could tell that just a simple magazine subscription turned out to be his favorite gift. The last Christmas he was excited again seeing that another year of CR will be on it's way.
The Internet has now become THE place for research before spending your money. Being a new homeowner, I have my own things to research and buy. I didn't get myself the magazine though. Instead, I've subscribed to CR online at a discount to the magazine subscribers. Using a code off of his magazine, for $19.00 a year I have access to all the great information Consumer Reports has. The only drawback is that I can't take my desktop computer to the bathroom. Hmmm. I think I'll research lap-tops.
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