I'm wondering if there's some way that we could...

I'm not sure we could ever get objective ratings on this site.

Consumer Reports is not anywhere near perfect but very careful on the way they classify their reports to users to check reliability.

Obviously say if your GPSr unit "bricks" and refuses to power on, that's a lot more serious than a touch-screen that could be more sensitive.

People often give reports on the boards here of their problems, and sometimes the problems are very widespread.

Also a lot of people tend to love their GPSr brands and will give some leeway regarding problems.

Even though this site supports all GPS brands, Garmin users are by far a majority on this site which could affect the rankings.

Someone on this site would have to come out with criteria and severity of those criteria for ranking reliability. Then people would have to be very honest in filling out the form which may not always be the case.

No way to get a true objective opinion here, the miniute you say anything about Garmin you get crucified. So there is no way possible it would work because of that.
Maybe if there where forum headings for a few more companies rather than the catch all other more folks would migrate and converse, and be more objective. Most people have only owned One type of GPSr anyway, and can't really know whats reliable and whats not.

Another problem...go to any site like Amazon.com or any other site that lets people rate products. On any given product you can find a bunch of people that give something a 1 star rating and a bunch that will give it a 5 star rating, Which bunch do you listen to?

I read both. I tend to read the 1 stars first to see exactly what folks are having trouble with: is it manufacturing quality, user interface, or simply petty personal preference crap. Then I read the 4 and 5 stars with the same critical eye. I tend to weight more to the bad reviews since its far more likely a "good" reviewer got paid to write it.

$0.02 input.

for about 35 years and have taken their annual survey of cars and other products every year. I'm sure they're careful in how they word the questions. But in the end, it's still subjective 'Would you buy this model of car again?' is one of their standard questions. 'Have you had to repair this item in the last 12 months?' 'Has something broken on this item and not been repaired in the last 12 months?'

Admittedly, there's all kinds of ways that people could rig the results if they wanted to on this site. But that's also possible with Consumer Reports, I'd think.

Places like Amazon or CNET have their ratings. I too read both the good and bad. When there's an even split of opinion, that's useful and it typically keeps me from buying that product. When it's very heavily slanted to one direction or the other, that too is useful. It's not perfect, and there are times I've bought something that got rave reviews and I thought was junk. But, that's the exception to the rule. Usually, my opinion fits in with the majority.

That Garmin dominates this site is probably because they dominate the sales of GPS' . So, to that end, it would be a realistic survey of preference.

Consumer's has done occasional ratings of GPS relative to features, ease of use, etc. and I used their advice to buy the two I now have. But, reliability, repair issues, durability, etc. are something that Consumers hasn't touched yet, and certainly not based on 100,000+ people who own the gadgets. That's my thinking as to why I think at least a few basic questions with a tally would be useful.

There are also a number of posts that I see on a regular basis, which ask 'Which is better: Tom Tom/Magellan/Garmin?' Get some results, and let people make their own decisions, rather than rely on one or a few respondents to their question.

GC

I may be wrong about this, so if I am someone can correct me. From what I understand Consumer Reports buys the items they test the same way a consumer does, right off the shelf. So how do they know if they got a exceptional product or a dud. As an example, five people can buy a television set and four of them will get years of trouble free service and the fifth person has the set a month and has nothing but trouble. I have seen this happen with many different products. According to what I have read in the geocaching forums Garmin's Colorado is a good example.

Does anyone know how many of each product Consumer Reports buys to test?

I do the same...

A Quick thought: If needed, we can have poll for each brand's popular GPSrs. That way we can sort list which one is more popular in Garmin, Magellan, Mio, etc.

What do y'all think?

Popular doesn't necessarily mean better.

Let me start by saying CR testing is far from perfect. Occasionally though they'll buy a bad product and let the reader know and test another one.

CR really doesn't test reliability on their own. They rely on surveys from users which are always going to be somewhat subjective. However they'll also include in the surveys have you had any trouble with reliability in the last month, 6 months, year, etc. As long as the great majority of the readers are being accurate, which they probably are, they're going to have a good idea on the reliability of the units.

They haven't posted any reliability ratings as of yet for GPSr's.

... that no one is perfect, and that nothing people do is perfect. Haven't found an exception to either of those rules in the last 50 years since he said that to me. So Consumer's being less than perfect doesn't mean anything. I'm not looking for perfection in doing our own survey. Useful, respectably accurate info is desirable, I think.

I'm going to replace my current GPS' at some point, and I'd like to have more detailed information than Consumer's is currently offering. e.g. When playing with an Etrex Legend HCx this past week, I found it to have a far more sensitive receiver than my 76CX, which frequently loses a signal in woods. I'd also be interested in learning people's opinions about how often they have glare on the screen to the point that its unuseable. And reliability issues. And battery life for AA powered versions. And battery life for plugged in versions relative to when they need to be replaced or tossed all together. That kind of stuff would be very valuable.

Miss POI....?

GC

If i am not mistaken, I did not mention BETTER anywhere in my post... Why you think, I meant Better??

Sorry, I didn't realize you were one of those who just want the most POPULAR things. I personally want BETTER things. I could care less if they are popular.

To the OP - this is the perfect example of why a rating system won't work. Rahool is more concerned about popular GPS devices. I'm more concerned about GPS devices which actually work well.

...and am more interested in quality, but if you're familiar with the Tire Rack.com survey that they conduct from consumers, it actually offers both sets of information, and that could be a model of what I'm thinking of actually.

GC

seems to me it would or could be very interesting developing ideas to make manufacturers to change an item or items by ratings. I think previous posts are most logical methods that would develop. Most people will buy what they like. I don't think that a rating by someone other than myself would concur anothers rating.

If it is better, it will become Popular, eventually!!! I have not seen many things that can STAY popular for long... if they are not BETTER!!!!

i tend to look at amazon reviews like others stated and i try to see what the people who gave it a 1 or 2 star said. it's usually a bad product in general or it's one of those "i got a bad apple" scenarios.

Quite literally a "bad apple" review quite often. I don't know how many bad reviews I've read where it was someone saying they couldn't get the product to work properly with their Mac.