Mr. John Stossel
ABC Primetime Newsmagazine Programs
147 Columbus Avenue
10th Floor
New York, NY 10023

Dear Mr. Stossel,

On one of your recent programs, you asked Arnold Diaz where you could go to find out what car was the most reliable. Mr. Diaz said the best bet would be "Consumer Reports Car Buying Guide or the Ultimate Car Book."

Do you know that Consumers Union went to great lengths in 1988 to rig road tests of the Suzuki Samurai to get it to tip over? They finally succeeded and gave it an "unacceptable" rating, saying it "easily rolls over." Sales in the U.S. tanked. They boasted about this in 1996 to hype their achievements, and Suzuki, which had obtained videotapes and testimony proving the rigging, sued. The case is headed for a jury trial.

CU also showed its bias in supporting the 60 Minutes hatchet job on Alar in 1989. I suggest that you look into doing a program on whether CU deserves its reputation for reliability.