Gould, The fact that you keep repeating the same statements does not make it
correct. JD Powers has a listing of boats broken down by category at the
following web site:
http://www.jdpower.com/cc/boats/boatratings.jsp

JD Powers has something to sell without resorting to biasing the survey,
that is what you fail to realize. Companies are very interested in the
consumers perception of them, both good and bad, the number 1 label is the
same as Consumer Reports "Best Value" and while there are people who would
disagree with CR ratings, I have never heard anyone say there reports are
deliberately biased.

You seem to have made up your mind, and are not going to allow facts to get
in the way of your viewpoint. Are you insecure or just upset because you
don't own a Cobalt? ; )




"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
No, I am not a Cobalt owner, but I might be insecure and that might be
the
reason I am taking a firm stand without any facts. I have not read "the
Cobalt Report" where can I get one?

Check the JD Powers site. The report may be out of print now, it surfaced
here
a year or two ago and was trundled around by a few as the definitive,
objective, and final arbiter about the relative quality of various boat
mfgs.
(At the time, there were even a couple of folks who ignored the fact that
the
runabout survey was restricted to runabouts and these people were
projecting
portions of the results of a "runabout" survey clear up to 35-40 footers).

The report featured a colorful graphic (a #1 IIRC) next to the Cobalt
name.
First clue
that the study wasn't purely scientific.

Stop by any vendor selling a product with
a top Powers ranking. Notice the faux cut crystal plaque on display with
the
name JD Powers at least as large as the name of the "winner". The plaques
are a
marketing gimmick that even the most gullible JD Powers enthusiast should
be
able to recognize.

If you sent out another survey, to the same group of people who
participated in
the runabout survey, and asked a different set of questions you would get
different results. Now, short of actually doing that we must settle for an
exercise in logic and
hopefully agree that when you change the variables it is not realistic to
expect identical results.

Controlling the questions is an almost foolproof way to influence, if not
absolutely predetermine the results of a survey. When the survey is
completed,
Powers needs something to sell.