gavriil

Toyota, General Motors Earn Top Spots in J.D. Power and Associates Quality Survey - - By Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writer - - Source: biz.yahoo.com

gavriil

Interesting.

Habiib

It's good to see that Nissan's efforts to improve quality control(by bringing over the engineers from Japan) has paid off somewhat. Also I'm kinda surprised to see that the 350z came out on top in its category. I would have expected it to be the S2000.

titan

GM's quality seems to have improved lately. They need to up the quality of their materials; create more exciting design; and continue to improve engine sophistication.

gavriil

Nissan, Hummer vault up in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study; Lexus keeps top slot - - DALE JEWETT | Automotive News - - Source: Autoweek

gavriil

My comments about the above list:

- I dont know how Lexus does it. Being number 1 for so many consequtive years folks, is not easy. Not at all.

- Kudos to Jag! I guess the X type has been completely "debuged".

- Cadillac has introduced many new vehicles during the past coupld of years, so it's no surprise they went up in number of issues.

- BMW. I was expecting them to be worse off this year and even worse next year, due to the many new models introduced. So kudos to them and let's see if I am wrong next year about them. I hope I am.

- At this point one can claim Buick as one of the most (initial) qualitative brands around. They have done it way too many times in a row. Very consistent (initial) quality.

- Mercedes back from the dead (I am not referring so much to 2004 but previous years). Let's see if it continues. Kudos to them also.

- An example of inconsisten initial quality is Mercury. From 6th last year to the middle of the pack this year and below the industry average. Is it the Montego? If it is it will only get worse next year as more new models are coming up.

- Toyota, excluding Lexus and Scion, has stabilized at above industry average but not at the top any more as you see. I have been slightly concerned about them for 3 years now. They are right at the verge of calling them..."in decline" in that respect.

- Audi is slowly getting better, but let's see what happens next year with all the new product revamps, etc.

- I am disappointed at Infiniti. They should have had less problems this year than last year. What happened to that excellence spirit?

- I am not surprised at Hummer because they have reached a point where they should have debugged most issues at this point. They are not a new brand any more. Plus, like Porsche and others, they have very few vehicles around. IT's easier to excell in a measure like IQ with fewer offering in your lineup.

- Hyundai is a disappointment this year. Consistency is what changes perception, not one year of excellence (or close to that).

- Honda, even more of a disappointment. They are closer to the verge for calling them "in decline" in this respect, than Toyota is/

- GMC had a good jump. Good for them but let's see if it can continue.

- Ditto for Lincoln.

- Acura you fuckheads what the hell happened?!?

- Chevy's position looks better but it aint that much of an improvement if you look at the difference at the total number of issues between 04 and 05.

- The industry average tells us that overall the auto industry has not improved as compared to last year. So overall people are as happy with their cars during the first 90 days as last year. Which is disappointing in my opinion.

- Jeep deserves some praise because with the new Cherokee introduced they should have done as well/bad or worse than last year (at least I am assuming the Cherokee was included in this study - not sure).

- Nissan has a huge improvement in number of issues but I dont understand all the positive publicity. (and let me be blant), they STILL SUCK! (compared to the rest).

- Chrysler stable at below average. Disappointining even with all the new vehicles introed.

- Ford does not get it, never got and proabably will never do (at least not any time soon).

- I am surprised Mitsu is not last at this point with all that negative morale internally.

- Pontiac is somewhat of a disappointment albeit all the new models.

- Ditto for Dodge.

- Mini looks terrible down there. They are in their third year already. Like Hummer a lot should have been debugged! It's one car for God's sake!

- Scion. Terrible considering it's a Toyota brand, they have a few models and they had a ton of time to intorduce them first in Japan, then in California and then nationwide. It should have been at the top of the list.

- Saab's case is same if not worse than the Ford's case. Same comments as Ford for Saab.

- Saturn, even worse comments than Saab's.

- Subaru is a huge disappointment. Very, very poor performance considering their internal goals. How can you even pretent you want to position yourself more..."premium" than not with this IQ performance? First you fix this, then you market yourself as premium. Look and learn from Hyundai.

- Kia. Surprised at how low they have scored considering the close ties with Hyundai.

- Volvo. What a huge disappointment. Last year they had less number of issues than Acura has this year.

- Porsche deserves the same comments as Ford. Let's see if the new models will help next year's scores.

- VW is stuck to the bottom and I dont see it budging for a long time. Look at the improvement in number issues from last year, and they still dont budge from the bottom. That tells you how severe the issues are at VW. There is so much work to be done over at VW, I pitty the people that will accept the challenge.

- Poor Mazda. Total capitulation at this point. And dont forget that the perception out there is that Japanese cars are qualitative/reliable (and I know this study does not cover those items directly, but surely you get my point).

Suzuki, no comments.

dom

<--- Not surprised.

Belzebutt

BMW: no new 3-series counted yet, so I expect a drop next year. The new models are mostly the 5-series and to a small extent the 7-series, which have fewer sales. Outgoing 3-series should be trouble-free, besides, they thrown in all repairs now so is it possible that dealers catch problems before they happen to the customer?

Acura: new TL, new RL, relatively new TSX. Only MDX is old. Not to make excuses, I would expect the results to be better. But I doubt this relfects long-term quality and the seriousness of issues. Rattles on TSX != electrical problems on 325i.

heyitsme

Theres really no major difference between Buick and Suzuki on the list, 1 problem versus 1.5 problems. I could see if the list varied from 100 to 500 problems per 100, then there would be a real reason to avoid a brand, but as it stands now, the only two notible things of the list imo are problems of the whole industry went down 20 which is great, and 2nd- BMw, Jaq, and Lex actually had less than 1 problem per vehicle. Seems to be the direction non luxury brands are moving to fairly quickly.

gavriil

That's 50% more. I'd say that's a huge difference.

heyitsme

Hows that a huge difference. One brand at that top has 1 problem on each of a 100 cars. The worst company has 1 problem on each of a 50 cars and 2 problems on the other 50.

Now this study combined with vehicle dependability over a 3 year period could show a significant quality issue. That seems to be the problem with praising companies for a good year of initial quality, when their 3 year dependability survey may show that they hve an addition 3-5 problems.

AcuraGT-3

Perfect summary, you hit the nails on the head.

gavriil

Thank you.

srika

nothing happened........ other than improving their 2004 number by 1..