ORIGINAL: BootCamp
I can't find a lot of fault or error in CR's ratings. I've used them to make purchases MAINLY because they don't accept advertising dollars from anyone, so the reports shouldn't be slanted in favor of thier biggest advertisers (since they have none).
In MY experience, the CR ratings are pretty accurate / reliable.
As for Mercedes, I've only driven one. That's all I needed to know that an MB wasn't MY type of car. Sounded like a tractor and felt like a boat.
With Mercedes as the parent company of DCX, it seems to me that the inmates are in charge of the asylum.
Just because they do not get money from the organizations does not mean they will not have a bias. I have seen many cases where they mark powertrains that I know as bulletproof as being one of the worse, and them recommend models that I know have problems as being the most reliable. One claim they made that is definitely false is their cell phone recommendations. They normally rank Verizon as the best. I had Verizon first and no matter what city I was in, the service was terrible. It was even worse in my hometown despite the fact that there was a Verizon store in town. I switched to Cingular and had no problems in either those cities or my hometown, (until I moved then they dropped me due to the fact that they didn't have towers in the rural community where I go to college but that's not what they were evaluating anyways).