They absolutely do weigh superficial issues heavily according to CR excerpts posted in this Yahoo Finance article. If anyone can find the actual CR article, link it. I'm not going to subscribe to that crap.
(Reuters) -Vehicles from Tesla Inc and electric sport utilities from rival brands are among the least reliable models sold in the United States, a reflection of the risks of new technology, Consumer Reports said on Thursday. Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization that evaluates products...
finance.yahoo.com
Pay attention to this part:
Then we have this:
So poorly fitting body panels, leaks? and issues with climate control. Oh and problems with the Falcon Wing doors. Yeah, that's why they're rated so poorly. Everything else doesn't matter, and especially the fact that their powertrain (a critical part of any vehicle) is less problematic.
So going with their scoring logic, how can the Mach-E score above average in reliability knowing what we and all their owners know about its ongoing problems including 2 recalls?
Sorry, but anyone buying into CR's BS articles must be high on something.
The point of the Tesmanian article was that CR singled out Tesla when other systems can be fooled as well, then drew the false conclusion that autopilot was unsafe because someone went out of their way to defeat the system. Darwin award winners and runners-ups should not be a consideration when judging safety. It was nothing but a hit piece.