Evaluating commercial products or services

Writers frequently evaluate commercial products or services. Consumer magazines test and rate every imaginable product or service — from cars and dishwashers to peanut butter and brokerage houses. Guidebooks evaluate tourist spots, restaurants, colleges, and hunting lodges. Specialty magazines such as Modern Photography, Road and Track, Skiing, and Byte often evaluate products and services of interest to their readers. To qualify as evaluation — and not just advertising — the authors and the publishers must maintain an independent status, uninfluenced by the companies of the products or services they, judge.

Consider, first, the following "evaluation" of a wine, found on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon:

This Cabernet Sauvignon is a dry, robust, and complex wine whose hearty character is balanced by an unusual softness.

This evaluative language is so vague and esoteric that it may mean very little to the average consumer who just wants some wine with dinner. Dry: How can a liquid be dry? Robust: Does this refer to physique? Soft: Wine is not a pillow, though it might put you to sleep. Complex: Are they describing a wine or conducting a psychological analysis? While an independent evaluator may legitimately use these terms for knowledgeable wine drinkers, this particular description suggests that the wine is anything the buyer would like it to be — dry yet robust, hearty but at the same time soft. Apparently, the writer's purpose here is not to evaluate a product but to flatter readers who imagine themselves connoisseurs of wine. In fact, such readers are just being conned by slick language.

In the following report on the Yugo, Consumer Reports illustrates a popular format for a more objective evaluation of a consumer product. In this brief excerpt, the editors present the criteria, the evidence, and their judgments. Clearly, this is not the language of advertising or uncritical promotion.

How Much Car for $3990?

An unusual new import, the Yugo GV, arrived in the U.S. last August. It's a tiny car — a couple of feet shorter than the Chevrolet Chevette — made in Yugoslavia by Zavodi Crvena Zastava (Red Flag Works). But the most unusual thing about it is the advertised price — $3990. The price quickens the pulse at a time when the average car sells for nearly $12,000 and a similar-sized car, the Japanese-made Chevrolet Sprint, sells for about $5570. Can you really buy a Yugo for $3990? No. Dealer preparation, included in the base price of most other cars, is $90 extra, and the destination charge is $299. If you add the official Yugo stereo radio with two speakers and a cassette player for $265, you have a $4644 automobile. Well, what's wrong with a Yugo for $4644? We'll let our test results speak for themselves. Engine and Transmission

Acceleration. All-out acceleration from a standstill was adequate, but the Yugo struggled and strained to climb highway grades in high gear. Our 0-60 mph run took 18.5 seconds.

Transmission. Easily the worst we've encountered in years. The shifter was very imprecise and often balky. The sloppy shift linkage made it hard to tell which gear you were in.

Economy. Well below what you'd expect from a small car with such a small engine. Figure on averaging about 32 mpg. (The Chevrolet Sprint, a Japanese minicar, averages about 50 mpg). Cruising range is only about 250 miles.

Ride and Noise

Ride. Snappy and jerky on back roads, and harsh and busy even on expressways. But the Yugo took large bumps in stride. When the car carried its full recommended load — 770 pounds — its ride softened just a bit.

Noise. Tiring. The small engine churned and buzzed on the highway. Coarse pavement increased the noise considerably. Wind noise, especially from the closed front vent windows, was also obtrusive.

Seating Accommodations

Driving position. Extremely awkward. The non-tilt steering wheel is too high, too far away, and too horizontal, and the steering column is angled toward the right. The pedals are too close to one another, and the intrusive wheel housing makes a very poor foot rest.

Rear seating. Unsuitable for adults. Six footers have to bow their head penitently and wrap their knees around the front seat back. The overly erect seatback forces passengers to slouch forward in a fetal tuck with all their weight on the base of their spine.

Our Yugo was a sorry sample indeed. We noted 21 defects attributable to sloppy assembly or incomplete dealer preparation. Oil dripped from the engine and coated the underbody as we drove. When it contacted the hot exhaust system, the car filled with acrid smoke... The brakes squealed, and every so often they dragged so badly that we could barely coax the car to 45 mph on level pavement.