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For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, the U.S. auto industry edged out import brands in the study on initial quality. 'This is a landmark,' says J.D. Power official. Ford and GM lead the list of improved brands.
We should all buy only big three cars, since We the People theoretically own the companies now. Just like Zastava (Yugo's), or Soviet Gorkys, I'm sure we'll only get the best.
(edit) true, true we don't own Ford. But two out of three ain't bad (or good, depending on your perspective) Thanks for the correction.
We the people do not own Ford, unless you own stock (like I do).
J.D. Power's initial quality survey is worthless. In years past Range Rovers, Porsche, Volvo, Jaguar etc. have scored highly - yet many of these brands end up with mediocre to poor reliability. I think buyers of expensive vehicles are still in the euphoria period. An ongoing problem with JD Power is the small sample size. Just tens of thousands of vehicles surveyed total. For some of the vehicles I bet they only have a few dozen responses.
The first 90 days are a very bad judge of extended reliability. I like the Consumer Reports reliability survey better. It takes a multiple year average into account. The negative is that it takes a couple of years to identify cars that are improving or going down.
Brands with the the highest percentage of recommended vehicles in CR are (in alphabetical order):
Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, GMC, Hummer, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Pontiac, and Toyota.
The rest are somewhere in the middle.
So it seems Ford has caught up to or exceeded many of its foreign competitors, but the others are lagging a bit. It seems like Ford was carrying the weight for the domestics in the JD Power survey as well. GM has a few bright spots (Malibu, Traverse, Silverado, G8) according to CR, and they seem to be on the upswing, but it'll be a few years till we really know how much they've improved. Chrysler seems like a lost cause in both surveys- they're the main drag on the domestics.
The first 90 days are a very bad judge of extended reliability. I like the Consumer Reports reliability survey better. It takes a multiple year average into account. The negative is that it takes a couple of years to identify cars that are improving or going down.
Another problem with Consumer Reports is that their surveys of subscribers are subject to "group think". For many years, CR panned the Big Three and repeatedly wrote glowing reviews of Toyotas and Hondas. This ended up brainwashing their subscribers into believing that Toyota and Honda could do no wrong, and the Big Three could do no right.
I do trust CR's reviews, but I have reservations about their subscriber studies.
Regarding Hummer, I currently have a Hummer H3, and it's been the most trouble-free vehicle I've ever owned.
Another problem with Consumer Reports is that their surveys of subscribers are subject to "group think". For many years, CR panned the Big Three and repeatedly wrote glowing reviews of Toyotas and Hondas. This ended up brainwashing their subscribers into believing that Toyota and Honda could do no wrong, and the Big Three could do no right.
I do trust CR's reviews, but I have reservations about their subscriber studies.
Regarding Hummer, I currently have a Hummer H3, and it's been the most trouble-free vehicle I've ever owned.
I have subscribed to CR for over 20 years. I'm not sure about the group think. I suppose CR readers will tend to choose CR's higher rated vehicles over time, but I'm not sure how that would affect the reliablity surveys. The surveys are very simple. They ask you if your vehicle has had a repair or not in each of the 20 or so categories they rate. It is very simple. They do not ask if it was warranty or not, whether you were happy or not, etc. Just yes or no.
The group think must not be too strong - otherwise CR readers wouldn't buy Dodges and Range Rovers, which almost never test well at CR.
The road tests are just scored tests. I think CR has different priorities than Road and Track. So the results may come out differently. But it doesn't surprise me that Mercedes and BMW usually do very well in CR tests, just like they do in Road and Track tests. They don't alway recommend M-B, because the reliability can be suspect.
CR isn't perfect, but it is still very useful. CR has made mistakes - like rating newly designed Toyotas as reliable, even without survey data. The had to eat that rating with the Camry not long ago. They have since become more disciplined about assigning relability ratings prematurely. Compare CR's survey size of well over 1M vehicles to JD Power's tiny sample size (about 56K in last years 3 year study).
The first 90 days are a very bad judge of extended reliability.
With all due respect, the report is about "initial quality", not "extended reliability".
In my opinion, that would mean such things as fit and finish and build quality.
Or perhaps in other words - things that need to be fixed immediately because of poor workmanship and/or quality control.
While in college I worked at a large Honda dealership as the "new car prep boy". It was my job to double-check obvious stuff before the customer took delivery as well as making sure the car was clean inside and out. You'd be surprised at just how many vehicles I had to put a transaxle drain plug (or similar item) into because the thing was shipped to the dealership without one!
With all due respect, the report is about "initial quality", not "extended reliability".
In my opinion, that would mean such things as fit and finish and build quality.
Or perhaps in other words - things that need to be fixed immediately because of poor workmanship and/or quality control.
While in college I worked at a large Honda dealership as the "new car prep boy". It was my job to double-check obvious stuff before the customer took delivery as well as making sure the car was clean inside and out. You'd be surprised at just how many vehicles I had to put a transaxle drain plug (or similar item) into because the thing was shipped to the dealership without one!
You're right - it is initial quality. But that is almost meaningless in the overall ownership of car. As you pointed out - initial quality may have a significant dealer contribution. Hence so many luxury brands that do well in initial quality. The dealers fawn over the buyer of a $70K vehicle.
The media touts initial quality as a big deal. Just look at today's coverage of this report.
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