Another car quality survey

[MikeMike]

http://www.asq.org/quality-report/reports/quarterly-quality-report-20060815.pdf

however, the most interesting thing i see is this...

Differential Between Perceived Overall Quality
and Customer Expectations

Nameplate

Mercedes-Benz-------- -6
Volkswagen------------ -6
BMW-------------------- -2
Cadillac ---------------- -2
Lexus------------------- -2
Chrysler/Plymouth----- -1
Lincoln/Mercury-------- -1
Ford-------------------- -1
Nissan------------------- 0
Jeep--------------------- 0
Mazda------------------ +1
Toyota------------------ +1
Chevrolet--------------- +1
Buick-------------------- +1
GMC--------------------- +1
Honda------------------- +2
Dodge------------------- +2
Pontiac------------------ +2
Kia----------------------- +2
Saturn------------------- +3
Hyundai------------------ +5

which is who actually has a better actual quality, than expected.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

Not too suprising. People commonly assume Hyundais are absolute junk, but their cars are getting better.

 

[EngenZerO]

no infiniti, blah

 

[krunchykrome]

I had a new Sonata V6 as a rental for a few days about a month ago. That car was nice. My only complaints were that the volume control on the steering wheel was not ergonomically place right. And there was no station changer buttons on thw wheel. I thought the 234 HP V6 power was fantastic and the interior was comfortable.

 

[mwmorph]

ok. If i assume brand a will break every 3 mnoths and it does only every 4 months it ranks higher than brand b I assume will never break but breaks once every 5 years? That dosent actually tell you how well a brand does, just how its improving.

from jdpower

MINI and Kia are the most improved brands in the study, although both continue to rank below the industry average. MINI, which was first included in the VDS in 2005, earns a 103 PP100 (27 percent) year-over-year improvement. Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005.

improvements dont mean too much if your reliability is still far below industry average.

Kia placed in 2006 with 310 problems per 100 vehicles. Mini had about 280. The industry average is 227 and the leader lexus is at 136.

Lexus is #1 for reliability no questions asked(12 years in a row #1 in jdpower vehicle dependability study) but this makes lexus look like crap. Not very useful for anyone trying to buy a car and decipher the reliability of different car brands.

What i want ot know is why everyone assumes german cars=high reliability. The german cars have been behinf the cure for a long time as far as reliability is concerned.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
ok. If i assume brand a will break every 3 mnoths and it does only every 4 months it ranks higher than brand b I assume will never break but breaks once every 5 years? That dosent actually tell you how well a brand does, just how its improving.

from jdpower

MINI and Kia are the most improved brands in the study, although both continue to rank below the industry average. MINI, which was first included in the VDS in 2005, earns a 103 PP100 (27 percent) year-over-year improvement. Kia has improved twice as much as any other brand in the past three years, improving 87 PP100 (22 percent) from 2005.

improvements dont mean too much if your reliability is still far below industry average.

Kia placed in 2006 with 310 problems per 100 vehicles. Mini had about 280. The industry average is 227 and the leader lexus is at 136.

Lexus is #1 for reliability no questions asked(12 years in a row #1 in jdpower vehicle dependability study) but this makes lexus look like crap. Not very useful for anyone trying to buy a car and decipher the reliability of different car brands.

What i want ot know is why everyone assumes german cars=high reliability. The german cars have been behinf the cure for a long time as far as reliability is concerned.

if you look at the actual LINK, it shows that Lexus is STILL the most reliable.

HOWEVER. these reliability statistics are making people feel the car will be either MORE or LESS reliable than it REALLY is...

something about expected vs actual? and when you dont get the expected quality, then bad things start to happen