Brad

Many vaunted--especially European--brands have scored worst than industry average in a list of cars in need of repairs: BMW, Saab, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, Land Rover, Volvo, and Jaguar are all worse than industry average with higher percentages of their cars needing repairs. Aside from luxury/sport marques, VW is the second worst, above Land Rover which scored dead last. These brands are worse than mediocre in terms of needed repairs!

To quote from the Detroit News,

"Despite steep prices and world-class images, new Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Cadillacs, Land Rovers, Jaguars and Saabs are more likely to spend time in a dealership for repair work than many cheaper cars, a J.D. Power and Associates survey found."

Full story is at:

http://www.detnews.com/2003/autosins...ess-231761.htm

Hah, hah, I love the chart.

The Honda brand even scored a bit better than Acura and Lexus. Honda scored 22%, Lexus scored 24%, and Acura scored 25%.

It goes to show how effective __marketing__ has been in influencing people's perceptions. In many cases, there's a stark contradiction between marketing perceptions of a brand's superiority and reality.

larchmont

We all love that chart!

Actually there have already been a couple of threads about this article. Most of the stuff so far is on here:

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...&threadid=1140

(Us dudes are fast!)

35kcdn

Thats chart is crazy shit. Can you believe that the Hyundai is rated better than than BMW, Audi and MB. The Kia and Daewoo also beat out these guys with the Kia beating out the Saab too.

Interesting to see that all the japanese automakers are above average including Mazda which has had Ford influence. Isn't GM dropping the "Buick" line of cars? I thought I heard that somewhere. If they did they'd be stupid, cuz they've always been near the top of the list.

I could be wrong, but I'm sure theyre must be some sort of correlation between a person spending more $$ for their cars and going into the shop for the most minor problem. I'm sure this ways into this poll/chart.

rzee

This is not really ratings, more like statistics.

Brad

I felt particularly motivated to post this in light of the trolls who expounded some mythical popularity or superiority of a Cadillac CTS, the Saab, and the BMW.

By conjecture--without statistics or facts to back it up--the article suggested that a Mercedes buyer would more likely complain about a squeaks than a Chevy buyer.

Regarding Buick, GM has a number of new models coming out in the coming 4-5 years. I don't believe that brand is dieing. It's Oldsmobile that GM is phasing out.

The story on Buick's plans are at:

http://www.detnews.com/2003/insiders...tos-233763.htm

I routinely visit Detroit News for automotive industry news. In fact, that's where I first read about the importation of a European-style Accord variant into the US that we all know as the Acura TSX.

Brad

Thanks. I never caught that posting...otherwise, if you know me, I would have jumped in on the discussion.

larchmont

I'm with you, Brad -- but you can relax just a little -- the Cadillac CTS thing was a joke.

Some of the "debate" over there made it seem like maybe or probably the original point was serious.
I'm 100% sure it wasn't.

35kcdn

Thats it! My bad. I did read that the second quarter, all big three (GM,Ford, DaimlerCrysler) had lost money on every car they sold (Something like an average $100), due to 0% financing and cash back programs. These guys should stop, the only problem is if one stops the other gains market share, so round and round they go.

Realistically in the long run consumers lose as the manufacturers have less money to do development and improve their cars or come out with exciting new models.

Brad

Maybe GM's brands are spreading their market too thinly.

Afterall, look at what Toyota does with only two brands: Toyota and Lexus. But look at all of the GM (and affiliated) brands overlapping each other for customers: Chevy, Suzuki, Pontiac, Oldsmobile (not quite dead yet), Buick, Saab, Subaru, GMC, Cadillac, and Hummer. And soon they will reintroduce GM's Daewoo-made cars under Chevy and Suzuki nameplates. This will be Daewoo's third attempt at the US market. If GM followed the successful Toyota model, they would take their best models in each segment and call them either Chevrolet or Buick. They could let the tacky overstated Cadillac die next. Maybe they could combine Saab, Subaru, and Suzuki into a new brand called Sabarzuki, a convoluted mixture of cars for those who want something different.