J.D. Power Releases Initial Quality Scores

[TinmanMS6]

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/jdpower-555.jpg

The annual J.D. Power Initial Quality Study is out and Lexus is back on top after giving up the top spot to Porsche for the last two years.

Cadillac was the top-ranked domestic brand while Hyundai earned the best scores for a non-premium brand.

At the bottom, Mini brought home last place, handily beating out perennial backmarket Land Rover.

AutoObserver has all the details if you want to know more.
http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/06/vehicle-quality-improves-despite-bumpy-financial-ride.html

[TinmanMS6]

I'd like to see these results graphed against average age of the buyer. I think younger buyers are a bit pickier, and didn't all drive the POS cars of the '70's and '80's, and so have higher standards.

[Newf]

I gave up even entertaining the idea of JD power about 5 years ago. I just don't believe a word they say anymore.

[TinmanMS6]

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/brake-dust-466x350.jpg

Fresh off a recent discussion at TTAC on the menace of brake dust, the NYT reports that the phenomenon made an impact on the recent JD Power Initia Quality Survey. Apparently consumers are complaining about brake dust in their IQS surveys, and it (among other things) knocked the Jag XF down a spot on the final standings. “A lot of the problems that might seem somewhat trivial from an engineering standpoint -– and brake dust is a good example –- are not necessarily trivial from a consumer’s standpoint,” says Powers’ David Sargent. “The perception is that the brakes are not performing properly, which is false, but in the consumer’s mind it is reality,”he explains. If brake dust isn’t an actual malfunction, why is it included in the IQS survey?


“In our mind if consumers consider something to be a quality problem we would consider it a quality problem because the purpose of the study is to report back problems as defined by consumers,” explains Sargent. And apparently this phenomenon led to Ford significantly downgrading braking power when it refreshed its Focus for 2005. As long as consumers stop complaining about brake dust, nobody seems to care that the brakes actually function worse than before.

[TinmanMS6]

Proving once and for all that the IQS is utterly and completely useless.