Lexus leads quality study
General Motors’ Cadillac is highest-ranking U.S. brand
Toyota’s Lexus brand was No. 1, Jaguar was most-improved, and General Motors was the top U.S. automaker in the closely watched J.D. Power Initial Quality Study for 2012 out Wednesday.
It was the second-consecutive year Lexus led the study as the brand with vehicles that had the fewest problems in the first 90 days of ownership.
Owners reported 73 problems per 100 Lexus vehicles, well below the industry average of 102. Toyota — including Lexus and Scion brands — also had the most top finishers in the ranking of individual car and truck models by product category. It had five.
Jaguar leaped from 20th place among 34 nameplates last year to a tie for second place with Porsche. The famous British name, now controlled by India’s Tata Motors, cut reported problems to an average of 75 per 100 vehicles, a reduction of 39 problems in a year.
“It has been a conscious effort by the company to get the quality right,” says Jaguar spokesman Stuart Schorr.
General Motors made the strongest overall showing among U.S. automakers with a thirdplace finish for Cadillac. That’s up from ninth place last year and puts it ahead of Honda. GMC and Chevrolet also had fewer problems than the industry average, while Buick was just off the pace.
GM also had four top-three finishers in the rankings of models, one fewer than Toyota, and tied with Nissan for second most top models.
The study shows the competition has toughened, as overall vehicle quality continues to rise:
-The industry average improved 5% — from 107 problems per 100 vehicles to 102 this year.
-Of 185 individual models ranked in both 2011 and 2012, 65% improved their scores.
-Of 32 of the 34 brands ranked in 2012 that also were ranked in 2011, 26 improved, vs. five declines. One stayed the same.
Some brands still drag at the bottom. The worst was Mercedes-Benz’s Smart mini-car brand and Fiat, tied with 151 problems per car. Then came BMW’s Mini, with 139 problems per vehicle.
Fiat’s return last year to the U.S. wasn’t auspicious, although Chrysler Group’s Dodge brand, dead last in 2011’s study, improved to fifth from the bottom.
While Chrysler and Jeep brands remained below the industry average in 2012, Ram trucks were ranked better than average.
The problems that owners report in the study don’t necessarily involve repairs. A problem can be something that works as designed, but disappoints the owner.
Some makers have been dinged in recent years for new infotainment systems that owners find baffling and for dual-clutch automatic transmissions that improve gas mileage but don’t operate as smoothly as a conventional automatic.
Power said multimedia systems — with their increasingly sophisticated audio, entertainment and navigation functions and more hands-free voice controls — is the top category for problems.
Such issues bedeviled Ford, which dropped in the rankings to 28 out of 34 brands. In 2010, Ford was the top-ranked non-luxury brand at fifth, then plummeted to 23rd last year. Power attributed the drop to owner dissatisfaction with the MyFord Touch infotainment system and a new dual-clutch automatic that owners found balky.
Ford blamed consumers still disappointed with MyFord Touch. Group Vice President Jim Farley said 89% of customers with the systems now have upgraded with new software, and most are happy with the improvements. But, he said, the changes came after the J.D. Power survey period ended.