Perspective on reliability - JD Power p/100V

[Darkbrew]

I know we all get frustrated by glitches with the cars but even the best cars still have issues and even the worst are not nearly as bad as we endured in the past.

[Norm201]

It's interesting to see Lincoln is the lowest. However, are these statistics just on a particular 100 vehicles of each brand or are they among several hundred of each brand?

[Audrey]

This must not include recalls. Note: Toyota and Lexus.

[grafxman]

Well, I just lost most of my respect for J. D. Power. Consumer Reports have always shown Jaguars to be pretty unreliable and here it's ranked the third most reliable?! Mercedes is more reliable than Honda?! Mercedes has usually been among the most unreliable cars on the road according to CR. There is one model of Lincoln that's been listed as extremely reliable and BMW has been notoriously unreliable so that much tracks with J. D. Power.

[FordFan]

The VDS is a customer survey intended to indicate the quality of vehicles as the factory warranty is expiring. Vehicles included in the survey are three years old, thus, does not include vehicles from the massive Toyota / Lexus recalls. The JD Power VDS has served as an industry benchmark for more than 20 years.

Originally Posted by Norm201

It's interesting to see Lincoln is the lowest. However, are these statistics just on a particular 100 vehicles of each brand or are they among several hundred of each brand?

I don't know the exact number, but I believe it is based on several thousand responses and normalized to a per 100 number.

Originally Posted by grafxman

Well, I just lost most of my respect for J. D. Power. Consumer Reports have always shown Jaguars to be pretty unreliable and here it's ranked the third most reliable?! Mercedes is more reliable than Honda?! Mercedes has usually been among the most unreliable cars on the road according to CR. There is one model of Lincoln that's been listed as extremely reliable and BMW has been notoriously unreliable so that much tracks with J. D. Power.

It's just a different methodology. J.D. Power uses surveys- so it's all self report - which has it's own set of issues, CR (tries) to use a less subjective approach- both have their pros and cons, neither is flawless or comprehensive, both are tools and can help research but nothing replaces parking your butt in the seat and going for a drive.


I have other posts on how I feel about the methodology, so I won't go into that here. What is interesting to note, and I think speaks for the entire industry, and I think is the point Darkbrew was trying to make and that is how things have improved. Here is the study from 2005- notice the industry average and the spread from the best to the worst (or in this case 1st to 22nd).

[billnchristy]

One could make up some new slogans with these charts such as:

Kia, we were almost 3x as crappy 6 years ago!

BMW, we exceed industry standards by nearly 10%

SMART...really?

Audi, we pack all our reliability into our racecars.

[Darkbrew]

Yes
my interpretation is that the industry is improving (237 to 151 average)
but also you will see issues with any new car... even the best cars average one incident per car per year...
Also, as stated, the spread has really dropped as quality has improved across the board.
Really there are no bad cars anymore....

[FordFan]

Originally Posted by Darkbrew

Yes
my interpretation is that the industry is improving (237 to 151 average)
but also you will see issues with any new car... even the best cars average one incident per car per year...
Also, as stated, the spread has really dropped as quality has improved across the board.
Really there are no bad cars anymore....

Totally agree. Also, I think what is missed, is the problems tend to be smaller, caught sooner, and repaired faster. There are, of course, exceptions, but on average and given the pace that new technology is being implemented, it's encouraging to see.