At least according to a J.D. Power and Associates recent study.
The findings showed that the number of problems car owners are having is actually dropping. It should be noted however that the study showed that 5 of the top 10 consumer reported problems with their cars three years ago… still remain in the top 10 best cars.
So “minimizing quality deterioration” remains a high priority for the car industry according to J.D. Power. This is measure of the problems that car owners have within the first three years of ownership.
Tough to knock of the big dog…
The Lexus brand was again rated number 1… bye the way, that’s the 14th consecutive year for Lexus to hold the top spot for this consumer study. Lexus owners reported 120 problems per 100 vehicles sold. This numbers is actually 25 fewer problems per 100 vehicles sold than was recorded for the 2007 study. Quite impressive.
In case you’re wondering… and why not…
Mercury cruised into 2nd place with 151 problems, followed closely by Cadillac with 155, Toyota actually finished out of the medal race in fourth 159, and Acura rounds out the top five with 160.
OK… so it begs the question… who is scraping the bottom?
Land Rover landed in the basement with 344 problems per 100 vehicles sold… yikes. The other cellar dwellers in the bottom five were… Suzuki with 302, Kia with 278, Isuzu with 274, and Saab breaks the tape at 254.
Now to fair… Saab also gets the most improved award with 65 fewer per 100 than a year ago.
Speaking of most improved… the most improved car industry segment goes to those in the mid-sized SUV range. This group showed 36 fewer problems per 100 this year.
In fact, the industry average had a good year improving from 216 a year ago to 206 this year.
So, all in all this appears to be a tale of two stories… much of the industry showed improvements, yet 5 of the top ten reported from three years ago are still in the top 10.
