My observation: Polls here not representative of norm

juneau92

juneau92

New member
Just my observation here, guys and gals.

I see the "Debadge or not debadge" poll has again re-surfaced.

This poll, as most others, shows the bias of the many enthusiasts we have here.

At the time of this post, I see that 34% vote to "de-badge" their 4Runners, supposedly just over a third of 4Runner owners.

I live in the Phoenix metropolitan area, I think now over 4 million people. I look closely at almost every 4runner I see, because I like to look at other 4Runners, and try to guess the year, V6 or V8, SR5, Sport or Limited, etc, even before I get close enough to see for sure.

NOT ONCE have it seen ONE 4Runner that has been "debadged", and I've been looking at them for over a year now. Wow. This goes to show that the folks here, like me, are truely enthusiasts.

Summary: Due to the enthusisism of the folks who visit and post on this forum, polls, such as "To Debadge or not Debadge" are meaningless.

Still, they're fun to see, read, and participate in. :) :) :)
 
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So you're saying in order for that poll to be accurate, you need to see 34% of 4Runners debadged on the road? I don't recall seeing a debadged 4Runner in St. Louis other than my own but then again I really don't see many people from St. Louis on any Toyota 4WD forum.

All I see is that 34% of the 105 members who voted have debadged 4Runners.
 
juneau92 said:
At the time of this post, I see that 34% vote to "de-badge" their 4Runners, supposedly just over a third of 4Runner owners.
Click to expand...

Your point is well taken but remember that the poll in question merely asks "Do You Like debadged 4 Runners"? It doesn't ask the responders if they have actually debadged their 4Runner. Liking something and actually doing something are entirely different questions. I'd like to be President of the United States of America but I'm too lazy to actually run :D

That said, I bet if you started a poll here asking if folks have actually debadged their 4Runner that while the percentage would be way lower then the 34% in the first poll that the percentage of folks who answer yes would still be well in excess of the true number on the road because of the "enthusiast" phenomenon like you said.

This reminds me of the old saying that statistics don't lie but lier's use statistics :D
 
Re: Re: My observation: Polls here not representative of norm

GatorGreg said:


This reminds me of the old saying that statistics don't lie but lier's use statistics :D
Click to expand...

Yes, that is so true! At least 67% but no more than 69% of respondants agree! :bigok:
 
The exact same reason why (because forum participants are enthusiasts) on any forum there are more people who complain about Toyotas and non-Toyota owners would say Toyotas have equal if not more problems than other makes. Enthusiasts expect a higher level out of their cars than the typical buyer. With that said and for the record, I've yet had any problems with my three Toyotas, knock on wood.
 
Can we take a look at a more recent poll? Does the 4Runner look better with a spoiler?

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24222

Note that nearly 78% of the people responded that yes, it does look better. Look more closely now.. 272 people responded to the poll.. We are currently over 14,400 members. So if we assume that only 272 people out of 14,400 actually responded (1.9% of the total members), then this is not a decent population to obtain this statistic from. If we continued with the math, only 1.47% of the group actually like the 4runner with a spoiler, less than 0.5% overall liked it without a spoiler, and nearly 98% really didn't care... Sounds like a true statistic to me...
 
I think this thread should have been created as a poll about the accuracy of forum polls.

(Note to self: duck and run for cover... I'm just a post whore.)
 
You do have a valid point - that polls here (on T4R.org) are not that of the norm (general population on planet Earth.)

It's pretty obvious that if we did solicit EVERY 4 Runner owner in the world that the polls here would be more accurate.

But the truth is that the people that are members here on TR4.org represent just a small population of T4R owners. If I had to guess it would be >.0001% of all owners on planet Earth or more. (notice where the decimal is) There's just a handful of people that are enthusiasts about their T4R, own a computer, and know about this forum. Also enthusiasts are more likely to do mods and give a sh!t about their cars than other people.

That said... the polls are a pretty accurate representation of the members of this community. Now if you get every T4R owner to come here and vote... then things might be different.
 
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boston_kevin said:
Can we take a look at a more recent poll? Does the 4Runner look better with a spoiler?

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24222

Note that nearly 78% of the people responded that yes, it does look better. Look more closely now.. 272 people responded to the poll.. We are currently over 14,400 members. So if we assume that only 272 people out of 14,400 actually responded (1.9% of the total members), then this is not a decent population to obtain this statistic from. If we continued with the math, only 1.47% of the group actually like the 4runner with a spoiler, less than 0.5% overall liked it without a spoiler, and nearly 98% really didn't care... Sounds like a true statistic to me...
Click to expand...

I don't think it is accurate to say that nearly 98% don't care. In order for that to be accurate, the poll would have had an "I don't care either way" option. You have to remember that out of the 14K+ members here, a very small percentage of them are active members, which means the majority of members probably never even looked at the thread.
 
If I remember correctly, when members repsonded to a poll on the model of 4Runner they own, a big majority voted for Sport Edition. Does anyone know how many SR5, Sport Editions, and Limiteds have been sold since 2003? I wonder if the numbers are even close? I doubt it....
 
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