Knocking Lexus and Infiniti out of their accustomed places atop the J.D. Power and Associates Customer Service Index Study, Lincoln and Buick finished one-two in the annual market research poll. What's more, six of the top 11 brands in the survey were domestic.
Read the fine print. That is how JD powers earns their money. They gather up info, then find a way to state the results so that they can paint a rosy picture to sell to manufacturers. Customer satisfaction and quality are not the same thing. If you want to know which cars are the most reliable go poll the mechanics, not the house wives.
Besides, they rate SHORT TERM reliability. I care more about the first 5 years than the first 3 months. Let's see how reliable that Buick is at 5 years and a 100K...
For short term customer satisfaction. Customers are "satified" with a car that needs the engine/trans replaced every 30,000 if they don't have to pay for it.
Good for them. I'd still rather drive my Maxima. The Lincoln LS and Cadillac CTS are nice, but WAY overpriced compared to what I paid for the Nissan.
On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 08:48:10 -0400, "Rich" pecked out:
Aaahh, but that CTS V looks very sweet.
And then there's the Mallet CTS V. But then who has $90K to spend on a domestic car?
kai
Well in recent years Japan and US quality are pretty much the same. Prior to 95 one would say Nissan, Honda and Toyota where the most long term reliable. Unfortuantly reliable doesn't sell cars, so it would make sense for Japan to losen up its standard in the USDM market. JD Power isn't a decent judge, especially with newer cars. Even the onc egreat Toyota doesn't produce cars like they used too.
What you need to do is separate the Japanese cars that are assembled in the USA and compare them to the Japanese cars that are still assembled in Japan. You will find that the Japanese cars that are now assembled in the USA have quality problems that are on par with the domestic cars. The cars that are still assembled in Japan still have a high initial quality rating as well as a good long term quality rating.
Regards,
-- Matt Costanza Austin, Tx USA
iruka_hoshi wrote:
On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 22:28:38 GMT, Matt Costanza pecked out:
Interesting point.
I saw a nice looking Toyota (Lexus) RX330 Station Wagon yesterday. Looked pretty well put together - if a bit small. I've heard they're somewhat reliable.
kai
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