Porsche, Honda, Chevrolet Among Big Winners in 2008 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study - Car News
GM and Ford do well, but Chrysler winds up near the bottom.
BY JOSEPH SZCZESNY June 2008
For the third year in a row, Porsche came out on top in the J.D. Power and Associates closely watched annual Initial Quality Survey (IQS) of vehicles sold in the U.S. by three dozen top automotive brands. (The complete rankings can be found on the next page of this article. Click here.)
Porsche, which makes its home in Stuttgart, Germany, came out as the top automaker in the annual quality survey, while the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen just outside of Stuttgart was named the top assembly plant. Porsche's Stuttgart plant, where the 911 cabriolet and coupe are built, came away with a "Silver" award as one of the best assembly plants in Europe, just ahead of BMW's Regensburg assembly plant.
Overall, Mercedes-Benz moved up one place against last year from fifth to fourth in the brand-level ranking, and three Mercedes-Benz models were among the top three of their respective segments.
However, vehicles from General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan also did well in the survey. For consumers, the survey is considered a good predictor of ownership experience throughout the life of a vehicle, even though it measures buyer satisfaction after a vehicle has been owned for just 90 days, officials from J.D. Power noted.
David Sargent, vice president of automotive research at J.D. Power's vehicle group, said the 2008 results reflected a steady "democratization of quality" across the industry. Japanese brands no longer dominate key vehicle categories, noted Sargent, echoing arguments domestic carmakers have been trying to make with only limited success. "All of the manufacturers are doing a really good job," Sargent said as he presented the 2008 survey results to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.
Individual Vehicle Accolades and Overall Improvement
The survey also highlights the best vehicle in 17 different segments, ranging from subcompact passenger cars to full-size vans. No manufacturer was tops in more than three categories, Sargent said. However, Honda, which seems to be on a roll this spring, won in the critical subcompact and compact car categories with the Fit and Civic and in the compact activity vehicle with the CR-V. In addition, the Chevrolet Malibu came away with top honors in the highly competitive mid-size car category, much to the satisfaction of General Motors.
"Initial quality in the automotive industry has improved significantly in 2008, with substantial gains demonstrated by nearly three-fourths of the 36 ranked nameplates," Sargent noted. Overall quality improved to 118 problems per 100 vehicles in 2008, down from 125 registered in
2007, added Sargent, who noted more than 81,000 consumers participated in the poll. "Due to some strong new-vehicle launches, in addition to a continued reduction in the level of defects and malfunctions, overall quality improved by six percent in 2008, compared with 2007," Sargent said. "This gain is driven not only by strong advances from many of the high- volume brands such as Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota, but also by very significant improvements by many other automakers.=94Sargent added that the industry-wide improvement was driven by automakers=92 efforts to listen better to customer opinions and observations and to integrate the feedback into designing, engineering, and manufacturing better vehicles.
Flaws Now Blamed More on Initial Engineering, Less on Assembly
Where assembly plants used to get a bad rap in earlier surveys, many of the items buyers now find unappealing are design flaws that have to be fixed upstream in the vehicle development process rather than factory defects that are relatively easy to fix, Sargent said. "Considerable work is needed in design quality," around the industry, he said.
The introduction of new technology into a vehicle also is a challenge, he said. There are a lot of complaints about the integration of sound system and navigation screens. Manufacturers have to be aware of the challenges as they offer the new technology, he said.
Tom Wilkinson, GM spokesman, said the IQS results generally indicate GM's efforts to upgrade the company's models are working. "The Malibu was the fourth-best car in the entire survey," even though it was a brand new model, Wilkinson noted.
Meanwhile, Ford moved up to eighth place from tenth, while Mercury moved up two spots to sixth place, just ahead of the Honda brand, noted Ford officials. "For customers who make their purchase decision based on quality, Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles must be on their shopping lists," said Bennie Fowler, Ford group vice president, Global Quality. "It is gratifying to see our commitment to quality paying off in such recognition by J.D. Power and Associates," he said.
The one company that slipped, however, was Chrysler. Chrysler did have the top vehicle in two different segments=97the Durango and Dakota topped their segments=97but the Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep brands were in the bottom quarter overall among the 36 brands surveyed. The Jeep brand, in fact, was dead last. The bottom tier also included brands such as MINI, Land Rover, Saturn, Suzuki, and Saab. Chrysler spokesman Ed Saenz acknowledged Chrysler needed to raise the quality scores. "We're not satisfied," he said. "We know we need to do better."