JD Powers: General Motors is the car company with the best quality

hard to believe

 

Congrats to GM.

 

It's amazing that a survey can be so flawed to get a huge jump in ranking from one year to the next. There is no way GM improved their quality so much in a single year to move up to #1. You can likely see a trajectory for the direction they're headed, but from 7th to 1st? Maybe other automakers had a bad year and they dropped? The same question has to be asked how that could happen within 1 year. What will we see next year, GM dropped to 5th?

 

to me, makes everything JDP's say suspect

 

The key here is the title: Initial Quality Study "...which looks at owner-reported problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership, this score is based on problems that have caused a complete breakdown or malfunction, or where controls or features may work as designed, but are difficult to use or understand."
This isn't a life cycle rating--just the experience in the first three months.

And, yes, the performance of the other automakers can play a big part. With all of the electronics being introduced, vehicles like the Silverado and Impala which probably had relatively low electronics content had that going for them.

 

From what I've seen, the Chevys don't have any less electronics than a lot of other cars.

 

Yep. These JDPA IQS aren't particularly useful. Nobody buys or lessees a car for only 3 months and then gets rid of it, and then does this on a regular basis. They have little to no correlation w/long term reliability. Even their "vehicle dependability study" (separate from this) isn't long enough which only looks at 3 year old cars. At least Consumer Reports goes further back and has reliability ratings for each model and each of its model years, going much further back.

Per many sources, the average age of vehicle in the US is ~11 years.

Per Design Flaws, Not Defects, Bug Car Owners The Most - Forbes

I even posted about this in 2006 at Lexus and Toyota Together Capture 11 of 19 Initial Quality Model Awards | PriusChat.

From that post, I linked to the live version of NissanNews.

 

Too bad operating margin = 2.6%, whereas Toyotas = 8.6%, a world class leader. Barra has her work cut out for her.

Mary Barra, the Contender: GM's Next CEO May Not Be a 'Car Guy' - Businessweek

The article also is funny, showing all the heads of the past stooges. (heads will roll).

Very suspicious of the JDP survey. Must be takened with a grain of salt, if at all.

DBCassdy

 

Yep, I agree with the Forbes article on the design flaws - classic GM.

DBCassidy

 

Why even believe? Its' pure propaganda.

DBCassidy

 

OP will believe anything GM, how sad.

DBCassidy

 

J.D. Power has never been in GM's hip pocket and that's what makes this news.

 

If J.D. Power receives any funding from companies being either direct or non-direct, BIAS always enters the picture. Non-direct funding, according to J.D. Power, is a funding source employed by J.D. Power. Even if GM swears it does not provide funding to J.D. Power, indirectly it can.

Powerhttp://F.A.Q.'s - Frequently Asked Questions | J.D. Power

Hence, while this article may cause some readers to jump for joy, it really needs o be takened with a grain of salt.

DBCassidy

 

If there is any truth at all to this article, it is a great improvement from the GM of old. The last GM that I bought was in the shop more than my driveway for the first few months until all of the factory "loose ends" were repaired.

It will be interesting to see how the reliability of these vehicles will be reported in the next few years. That will be the real proof.

I would really like to see this be the "real GM".

 

GM has made great strides in quality and durability. Hopefully the JD Powers survey is an indication of more improvements to come. Our current 2007 Chev Avalanche has been one our most reliable long term vehicles. Our previous 2000 Mercedes M320 was the worst. Engine/drivetrain were great, but everything else about it was crap. Too bad GM discontinued the Avalanche because it's such a flexible vehicle and has been a great workhorse for our household and business. It has about 110k miles, fairly low miles for it's age and use, and will likely take it to 160k miles before replacing it. Even with the few minor problems that didn't cause any downtime, total spent for maintenance, including brakes, belt replacements, tuneups, oil changes, tires, etc has been less than $3,500. FYI - oil changes occur based on built-in oil like monitor, typically every 12k-13k miles. Just wish it gets better than 16 mpg but considering it's almost always loaded down with stuff, not bad.

 

Original article, the survey has to do with "Initial quality" and also is different from: http://autos.jdpower.com/ratings/dependability-press-release.htm

 

Time, long term owner satisfaction, and customer retention are always the benchmark for success.

GM is no different and will be determined by the buying market.

DBCassidy

 

Jesus, confirmation bias or what. These surveys are finding the stupid problems that are going to piss off owners and get them telling everybody else not to get the car. The physical failures they know about through warranty work. Non-buyers don't give feedback, they just walk away, so fixing the reported problems could result in more sales.

JD Power just does these misleading press releases to put pressure on the manufacturers to buy their data.

 

Holy cow guys!
It is one survey representing initial quality. One data point. Just as fuel economy is one data point. And price is a data point.
I think any car company that scores highly on a single data point should be applauded, better than scoring last.
Likewise, no single data point tells the whole story.

But for cripes sake, isn't scoring well on initial quality better than scoring poorly?