J.D Power releases 2008 Initial Quality Study

[mikeyb]

 

[Donas64]

Dag,

I guess I can't rag on the v-dub guys about their crap reliability anymore. We're right there next to them. Then again I drive a stock P5 and its never put a foot wrong yet.


You think these results are mostly due to issues with the 2.3 DISI smoking, motor mounts etc or what other factors can contribute to initial quality ranking?

 

[coolmazda5]

Does somebody know what does initial quality mean? 1st day, 1st month, 1st year of ownership?

I'm puzzled, long term reliability seems to be a better indicator to me, especially after the warranty is gone (boom03)

 

[SuperStretch18]

Here's an article from Mike Karesh (member here) regarding this release:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/jd-power-release-iqs-and/

J.D. Power Release IQS. And?
By Michael Karesh
June 4, 2008 - 200 Views

J.D. Power has released its Initial Quality Study (IQS) results. Once again, the scores combine design quality (stuff that cant be fixed, like BMW's iDrive) and manufacturing quality (stuff that can and should be fixed). Once again, these results convey little useful information. For one thing, J.D. only releases the scores for makes, not for individual models. For another, the make scores are so close together that the rankings aren't particularly revealing. Only a single make beats the average (1.18 problems) by more than 20 percent: Porsche. The list of whos doing 20 percent worse than average is longer: Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Saab, Suzuki, Saturn, Land Rover, MINI and Jeep. So these are the makes to avoid, right? It depends on how wound-up you get about a single additional initial problem for every three cars (youre buying at least three, right?) in the first 90 days. And remember: J.D. doesnt release individual model scores. At some point, J.Dll give us circle dots, but these wont divulge which models score poorly enough to earn only a single dot the lowest score is two dots.

(continued later in the Q&A)
A dot is not a score.

As far as I know, theyve never even made it clear what each dot represents in terms of an actual score.

How far above and below the average does a three dot extend? How much better than average does a car need to earn a five?

Its not really relevant which models are the winners unless you think of this as a game. If you just want to know which cars arent going to be troublesome, a number of alternatives will be close enough to each winner that theyre essentially equivalent for anyone buying just one car.

The most useful information: which cars are the most troublesome. And thats exactly what they wont tell us.

 

[Hughes412]

LOL, so by this I guess my little gas car I just bought was a good buy. GO KIA!!!

 

[coolmazda5]

^^ Exactly, that is a good point. KIA and Hyundai are known to be of good quality when new, but then 1-3-5 years down the road the feedback in different car forums is that many minor and major things breaking/failing start to be a daily thing, and that is what I'm more interested to know when I buy a car (dunno)

 

[Donas64]

LOL, so by this I guess my little gas car I just bought was a good buy. GO KIA!!!

KIA is the next LEXUS! (peep)

 

[coolmazda5]

KIA is the next LEXUS! (peep)

At least many of the KIA models start looking like the LEXUS ones, so you may be right

No, but seriously, I guess time will tell, they are doing OK in the industry plus becoming more creative and "original" in some of their models.

 

[Donas64]

At least many of the KIA models start looking like the LEXUS ones, so you may be right

No, but seriously, I guess time will tell, they are doing OK in the industry plus becoming more creative and "original" in some of their models.

Even though I was pretty much being sarcastic, if they are able to pull themselves up the way Hyundai has, I think they will be okay.

 

[Hughes412]

Well, I don't think this is off topic so I'll tell you what I think so far. As you can see I have the jeep. I needed better MPG's so I traded it in. By the way, I still have my 78 Chevy short wide truck for a toy.

I looked and test drove the Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Mazda 3 (already knew how they drove but what the hell it was fun) and Hondai accent and little chevy car. I even test drove the Smart 4 2. I will say this, I would have bought the Smart car if there wasn't an 18 month waiting list for it. That little car is a blast to drive!

So out of all them the best bang for your buck was the Kia. I looked on line and places like MSN the user ratings for the kia was higher with a 9+ average. The car has the same set up as the accent, better acceleration then the honda and toyota and was 3k cheaper. And it has a much better warranty 100k power train. I looked at the Rio's that people at work have and they all said they love them. I'm talking about cars that are 1-5 yrs old. So I figued what the hell, 11k for 5yrs at 6% I'll have it paid off in 2yrs. All I can say is I've had it for 1 week and it is doing every thing I need it to do and doing it well.

Now I can build my truck!(boobs)

 

[TinmanMS6]

Here's an article from Mike Karesh (member here) regarding this release:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/jd-power-release-iqs-and/

Additionally, these "problems" are all based on a survey of owners, so if somebody thinks their shift knob is too phallic, that goes down as a problem. Whatever somebody feels like complaining about is a "problem" in this survey. If you get in the car and like everything about it, but see that it didn't do well on the JD Power IQS, you probably have different tastes/standards/perceptions than the people surveyed. "Oh noez! My Evo X has a harsh ride!!!111!" I would guess most people here might not care.

 

[SuperStretch18]

A phallic shift knob is a HUGE issue in my book! My hand has to go there all the time!