This week, executives at GM and Ford made comments about ongoing attempts to pull perceptions more in line with reality. "Perception definitely lags reality," Ford Americas Chief Mark Fields said during an interview Tuesday. On Wednesday, GM's Mark LaNeve, the auto maker's top North American sales executive, told a group of auto analysts that GM still has work to do to convince buyers that GM's products are as good as the best of the competition.

The substantial drop-off in Porsche's performance, from 149 problems per 100 2002 model year cars last year, to 248 problems per 100 2003 model year cars this year, was due mostly to problems with the company's 911 and Boxster sports cars, said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.

LOS ANGELES -- So how clunky are Land Rovers, anyway?

According to the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, the British SUV brand is at the bottom of the heap, with 204 problems per 100 vehicles. That's far worse than the industry average of 124 problems per 100 vehicles.

The poor showing is a repeat performance for the luxury SUV brand, which has been one of the bottom three of the Power IQS pack for three of the past four years.

How many vs. how serious

Land Rover executives say that it's not necessarily how many problems are found but how bad those problems are. It also matters how quickly the problems are corrected on the assembly line. Land Rover has fixed the problems detailed in the survey, said Al Kammerer, director of product development for Land Rover and Jaguar.

J.D. Power executives counter that niggling early quality problems often are bellwethers for longer-term lack of durability and reliability.

"There is a very good correlation between initial quality and vehicle dependability," said Neal Oddes, J.D. Power director of product research and analysis.

J.D. Power's vehicle dependability survey will be released Wednesday, Aug.9.

In Land Rover's case, its dead-last IQS finish can be attributed largely to software gremlins that triggered a persistent check-engine light.

"Consumers just knew they had a problem with a check-engine light," Oddes said. "They didn't know what the underlying problem was, and that leads to a certain apprehension."

Land Rover replaced its BMW-sourced engines for the Range Rover with ones from Jaguar for the 2006 model year. It also launched the Range Rover Sport with the same Jaguar engines. Both required creating new engine management software applications.

But Land Rover engineers did not account for all the different electronic connections that a Land Rover must mate to, compared with Jaguar. That triggered fault codes in the software that then lit the check-engine light, Kammerer said.

Those errors were especially prominent in the Range Rover, which used the new Jaguar engine but retained the original BMW electrical architecture.

"Seventy to 80 percent of all quality problems have their root in poor engineering," Kammerer said. "We have gone back and fixed those goofs and have the data to prove it."

All models involved

All IQS data is sales weighted, Oddes said. But all three Land Rover models - the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and LR3 - contributed to the brand's poor performance.

In addition to the check-engine light, consumers dinged Land Rovers for brake noise, as well as the Range Rover Sport's hard-to-close liftgate.

Kammerer said the brake problems derived from the "witchcraft" of the brake pad formulating process gone wrong. The liftgate problems came from the body shop's stamping tolerances being out of whack. Both problems have been corrected, Kammerer said.

The real evidence of Land Rover quality comes from warranty cost outlays, Kammerer said. While he would not disclose warranty-cost-per-vehicle - that being a highly guarded secret at most automakers - Kammerer said costs are down by "well beyond 20 percent" since last year.

J.D. Power and Associates Reports:
Buick and Jaguar Tie to Rank Highest for Vehicle Dependability

Toyota Motor Corporation Captures Ten Segment Awards; Ford Motor Company Garners Four

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 19 March 2009 — Buick and Jaguar each rank highest in vehicle dependability in a tie, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS) released today. Buick improves from a sixth-place ranking in 2008, while Jaguar improves from 10th place. Following in the top five rankings this year are Lexus, Toyota and Mercury.

Toyota garners five segment awards—more than any other nameplate in 2009—for the Highlander, Prius, Sequoia, Solara and Tundra. Lexus follows with four segment awards for the ES 330 (in a tie with the Acura RL), GX 470, LS 430 and SC 430. Lincoln captures two awards for the Mark LT and Zephyr. Models by Acura, Buick, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mercury, Nissan and Scion each rank highest in one segment.

“Buick has ranked among the top 10 nameplates each year since the study was last redesigned in 2003, while Jaguar has moved rapidly up the rankings,” said David Sargent, vice president of automotive research at J.D. Power and Associates. “Lexus remains a very strong competitor in long-term quality. In particular, the Lexus LS 430 sets the industry standard for dependability, with fewer problems reported than any other model in the study.”

The study, which measures problems experienced by original owners of three-year-old (2006 model year) vehicles, has been redesigned to include 202 different problem symptoms across all areas of the vehicle. Overall dependability is determined by the level of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100), with a lower score reflecting higher quality. The study is used extensively by vehicle manufacturers worldwide to help design and build better vehicles—which typically retain higher resale values—and by consumers to help them make more-informed choices for both new and used vehicles.

“In the current economic climate, consumers are delaying new-vehicle purchases and keeping their vehicles longer—the average age of a vehicle at trade-in has increased to 73 months in 2009 from 65 months in 2006,” said Sargent. “This makes vehicle dependability even more critical. Automakers have improved long-term dependability by an average of 10 percent each year since the inception of the study, which is a testament to the industry’s commitment to continuously improve and sustain quality, especially long-term quality. Making improvements in long-term quality not only satisfies customers who are holding onto their vehicles longer, but it will also influence their decisions when they return to the new-vehicle market or are seeking to purchase a pre-owned vehicle.”

The study finds that the frequency and severity of component replacement has a particularly strong impact on customer loyalty intentions. Component areas for which the impact is greatest include engine and transmission. When engine components are replaced or rebuilt, just 11 percent of customers state that they definitely intend to purchase or lease another vehicle of the same make, compared with nearly 40 percent among owners who report replacing no components.

The study also finds that Buick, Lincoln, Mercury and Jaguar owners are less likely to replace components than owners of other vehicle brands. While component replacement rates are similar for premium and non-premium makes, there are notable differences between vehicle segments. Owners of models in the premium sporty vehicle segment are least likely to replace components, while owners of models in the van segment are most likely to replace components.

The 2009 Vehicle Dependability Study is based on responses from more than 46,000 original owners of 2006 model-year vehicles. The study was fielded in October 2008.