Miami Herald

In-car electronic­s get thumbs-down from consumers

- BY CHERYL JENSEN

Problems with in-dash electronic systems are a “growing reliabilit­y plague” for many automakers, Consumer Reports says in its latest Annual Auto Reliabilit­y Survey. The report predicts the reliabilit­y of 2015 vehicles currently in showrooms by evaluating models from past years.

Once again, Japanese brands scored well in the survey of owners. Lexus again led the rankings, followed by Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Audi, Buick, Subaru, Scion, Porsche and Kia.

For a second consecutiv­e year, General Motors had the most reliable brands among Detroit’s automakers. Scores improved for Ford and Lincoln, but Chrysler’s brands fell at, or near, the bottom of the heap.

Of the GM brands, only Buick finished in the top 10, moving up to sixth place from 16th last year. GM’s other brands finished in the lower half of the rankings, dragged down by problems with new full-size pickups.

OBSTACLES IN GROWTH

Of 28 brands in the study, Chevrolet ranked 21st, slipping four places, and GMC was 19th, down 10 places. The popular Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups were substantia­lly redesigned for 2014.

“This is a really big thorn in Chevrolet and General Motors’ side, because these are such big sellers,” Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports, said in a telephone interview.

With these trucks, owner complaints covered an assortment of issues.

“I’ve been digging through individual customer complaints, and some people are talking about the driver’s window falling out of the track,” he said. “Some are complainin­g about trim pieces falling off.

The Ram 1500 fared poorly as well, pushing Chrysler’s truck brand to 26th place from 19th last year, also because of a variety of problems, Fisher said.

PROBLEMS UNSOLVED

The report is based on data from about 1.1 million 2005-14 modelyear vehicles leased or owned by Consumer Reports subscriber­s, and it includes 248 models from 28 brands.

To determine predicted reliabilit­y, the publicatio­n’s statistici­an calculated the average of the overall reliabilit­y scores for the most recent three model years, assuming that a given model had not changed during that period and was not redesigned for 2014. If it was, Consumer Reports may use one or two years of data to calculate a rating.

First-year models from Infiniti, Jeep, Fiat, Ram, Cadillac, Ford and Honda all have “significan­t problem rates,” the magazine said, caused by problems in their so-called infotainme­nt systems, or in-car electronic­s that provide navigation, smartphone connectivi­ty, audio and other functions.

In the survey, subscriber­s were asked about any serious issues they had in 17 problem areas with the cars they owned over the previous 12 months.

The category that included incar electronic­s generated more complaints from owners of 2014 models than any other category — 10 to 20 percent on some vehicles, Fisher said.

Issues like freezing screens, lag- ging touch controls, malfunctio­ning voice recognitio­n and problems in pairing smartphone­s continued to plague these systems.

Infiniti’s new Intouch was rated less reliable than Ford’s MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch systems had been in their first year, when they were riddled with problems. Other top complaints were about noises and leaks, body hardware, power equipment, paint and trim. NEW BUT NOT BETTER?

The problems highlighte­d by this year’s study echoed similar complaints about infotainme­nt systems expressed this year in the 2014 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.

In that assessment, vehicles that were all-new or had undergone major redesigns had more problems than vehicles that carried over with few significan­t changes.

Among the all-new vehicles, the increase in problems was mainly in the areas of voice recognitio­n, Bluetooth pairing and audio systems.

Here are some other conclusion­s from the survey:

The Scion xB was the highestsco­ring vehicle overall in predicted reliabilit­y.

The Chevrolet Equinox and its near-twin, the GMC Terrain, both with standard four-cylinder engines, were the highest-scoring domestic vehicles.

The Fiat 500L was the least reliable new car.

Small cars caused problems for the domestic brands. The Chevrolet Sonic and Cruze, Ford Fiesta and Focus and the turbocharg­ed version of the Dodge Dart were all below average in the ratings.

Several brands fell significan­tly: Infiniti plunged 14 places to 20th, Mercedes-Benz dropped 11 places to 24th and GMC slipped 10 places to 19th.

Among the most improved brands were Lincoln, which” jumped 12 spots to 15th; Hyundai, which rose eight places to 13th; and Cadillac, which moved up seven spots to 18th.

 ?? GENERAL MOTORS VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES ?? The 2014 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ is one of the many car models that are bringing in-car electronic problems and complaints from consumers.
GENERAL MOTORS VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES The 2014 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ is one of the many car models that are bringing in-car electronic problems and complaints from consumers.

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