JD Power 2010: how did your car do?

[tonym911]

Not everyone is lucky enough to own a desirable motor. For those of us who languish in the ditchwater end of the market the JD Power ownership survey always makes interesting reading.

This year, there were 104 cars in the survey. How did yours do? Top ten (ish):

1) Lexus RX
2) Jaguar XF
3) Lexus IS
4) Kia Cee'd
5) Honda Accord
6) Toyota Prius
7=) Honda Jazz
7=) Toyota Yaris
9=) Audi A6, RS6, S6, Allroad
9=) Honda CR-V

Bottom ten (starting with the worst):
Ford Ka
Peugeot 206
Fiat Bravo
Fiat Grande Punto
Vauxhall Meriva
Peugeot 107
Kia Picanto
Vauxhall Zafira
Suzuki Swift
Kia Rio

Perhaps most revealing is the Manufacturers' league table. There's only 27 of them, so here they all are:

1) Lexus
2) Honda
3) Jaguar
4) Mercedes
5) Toyota
6) Skoda
7) BMW
8) MINI
9=) Audi
9=) Volvo
11) Volkswagen
12) Mazda
13) Nissan
14) Land Rover
15=) Mitsubishi
15=) Saab

Saab occupies the 'industry average' position. The rest are all below that average:

17) Hyundai
18=) Citroen
18=) Kia
20) SEAT
21) Ford
22) Renault
23) Vauxhall
24) Peugeot
25) Suzuki
26) Fiat
27) Chevrolet

You've always got to take JD Power results with a pinch of salt, as they sometimes reflect emotional responses rather than rational ones (people justifying their purchases, marque expectations etc) but it's still interesting as a trend indicator.

[kambites]

Lotus don't sell the volumes to be included.

[mister.t]

My cars aren't new enough

MINI 8th and LR 14th, could have been worse. Mercedes 4th is a (pleasent) surprise, and the Koreans (Hyundai, Kia etc.) also a bit of a (shocking) surprise IMO

[Wacky Racer]

kambites said:

Lotus don't sell the volumes to be included.

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.....

Only joking.......;)

[tonym911]

mister.t said:

My cars aren't new enough

MINI 8th and LR 14th, could have been worse. Mercedes 4th is a (pleasent) surprise, and the Koreans (Hyundai, Kia etc.) also a bit of a (shocking) surprise IMO

Yeah, the Korean thing is a bit odd, especially when the Kia C'eed came 4th overall. Mind you, the C'eed is the first of the 'new gen' Kias to appear in JD Power. Other manufacturers need to take notice of that, especially Ford: out of 104 cars, their highest rated was the Mondeo at 49, followed by Fusion (57), Focus (70 - that was a surprise, I thought they were pretty reliable and well liked), S-Max (72 - another surprise, for the same reason), C-Max (76), Fiesta (80), Galaxy (93) and Ka stone last (104). Appaz Ka owners particularly hate cost of repairs and insurance, interior and brakes. They don't mention rust, which I thought was the biggest Ka gripe.

[Targarama]

My ickle Fiat Panda did OK. Overall Fiat did crap though.

[kambites]

Wacky Racer said:

kambites said:

Lotus don't sell the volumes to be included.

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.....

Only joking.......;)

Nah, these days it seems to be more a case of "Lots Of Trouble, More Often Irritating Than Serious", but LOTMOITS doesn't seem such a good name for a car company, somehow.

[Fittster]

I really don't think Jag get the credit they deserve.

If some starts a thread with "I want a reliable barge" most of the responses are still BMW/Lexus/Merc.

[ex vtskid]

Are Mercedes back on form now?

[kambites]

ex vtskid said:

Are Mercedes back on form now?

Seems so, doesn't it. Wasn't long ago that they were languishing in the bottom half of these surveys.

[tonym911]

Targarama said:

My ickle Fiat Panda did OK. Overall Fiat did crap though.

The survey did note a marked improvement in Fiat dealer service, which is what has dragged them down in previous years. The Panda is a very underrated little car.

[Targarama]

tonym911 said:

Targarama said:

My ickle Fiat Panda did OK. Overall Fiat did crap though.

The survey did note a marked improvement in Fiat dealer service, which is what has dragged them down in previous years. The Panda is a very underrated little car.

True, and I've had no problems with the service from my dealer (apart from the prices being a little high for a city car).

[morebeanz]

I'm intrigued that there are no Merc cars individually in the top group and yet as a manufacturer they've done very well.

I have a current model Audi A6, so that's done well...

[tonym911]

kambites said:

ex vtskid said:

Are Mercedes back on form now?

Seems so, doesn't it. Wasn't long ago that they were languishing in the bottom half of these surveys.

Oddly, in the sports car section, which for some reason comprises just five cars – MX-5, Merc SLK, VW Eos, Audi TT and Merc CLK (sports car??), the CLK slumped from winning last year to dead last this year. Seems owners have gone off its looks. Mazda won sports car section this time round.

[300bhp/ton]

tonym911 said:

Not everyone is lucky enough to own a desirable motor. For those of us who languish in the ditchwater end of the market the JD Power ownership survey always makes interesting reading.

This year, there were 104 cars in the survey. How did yours do? Top ten (ish):

1) Lexus RX
2) Jaguar XF
3) Lexus IS
4) Kia Cee'd
5) Honda Accord
6) Toyota Prius
7=) Honda Jazz
7=) Toyota Yaris
9=) Audi A6, RS6, S6, Allroad
9=) Honda CR-V

Bottom ten (starting with the worst):
Ford Ka
Peugeot 206
Fiat Bravo
Fiat Grande Punto
Vauxhall Meriva
Peugeot 107
Kia Picanto
Vauxhall Zafira
Suzuki Swift
Kia Rio

Perhaps most revealing is the Manufacturers' league table. There's only 27 of them, so here they all are:

1) Lexus
2) Honda
3) Jaguar
4) Mercedes
5) Toyota
6) Skoda
7) BMW
8) MINI
9=) Audi
9=) Volvo
11) Volkswagen
12) Mazda
13) Nissan
14) Land Rover
15=) Mitsubishi
15=) Saab

Saab occupies the 'industry average' position. The rest are all below that average:

17) Hyundai
18=) Citroen
18=) Kia
20) SEAT
21) Ford
22) Renault
23) Vauxhall
24) Peugeot
25) Suzuki
26) Fiat
27) Chevrolet

You've always got to take JD Power results with a pinch of salt, as they sometimes reflect emotional responses rather than rational ones (people justifying their purchases, marque expectations etc) but it's still interesting as a trend indicator.

None of my cars are on there, not that it'd bother me either way.

But the big point you've missed, and you need the stats for. Is last place scored almost the same as first place. They are only in order with a first and last because someone has forced them to be.

If you set a realistic target of good or bad, then I suspect all of them would be in the same camp pretty much.

[tonym911]

morebeanz said:

I'm intrigued that there are no Merc cars individually in the top group and yet as a manufacturer they've done very well.

Top Merc was C-Class (14=). E-Class was 17, SLK 18=, B-Class (which also won the MPV class, again out of nowhere) 22, A-Class 25, so they packed out the top midfield pretty well. CLK was well adrift at 61.

[tonym911]

300bhp/ton said:

But the big point you've missed, and you need the stats for. Is last place scored almost the same as first place. They are only in order with a first and last because someone has forced them to be.

If you set a realistic target of good or bad, then I suspect all of them would be in the same camp pretty much.

A good point. The winning Lexus RX scored 86.7%, the losing Ford Ka 73.3%. Having said that though the tone of the owner comments (at least as they're portrayed in the What Car? story) doesn't seem to reflect this relatively slim difference between top and bottom. Perhaps this compression effect is more a reflection of British reserve, of our reluctance to mark things down too much in case we upset anyone.

[300bhp/ton]

tonym911 said:

300bhp/ton said:

But the big point you've missed, and you need the stats for. Is last place scored almost the same as first place. They are only in order with a first and last because someone has forced them to be.

If you set a realistic target of good or bad, then I suspect all of them would be in the same camp pretty much.

A good point. The winning Lexus RX scored 86.7%, the losing Ford Ka 73.3%. Having said that though the tone of the owner comments (at least as they're portrayed in the What Car? story) doesn't seem to reflect this relatively slim difference between top and bottom. Perhaps this compression effect is more a reflection of British reserve, of our reluctance to mark things down too much in case we upset anyone.

I would think it might be case of making stats show what you want, so cheery picking or highlighting the most relevant or pertinent comments and ignoring the rest. Without seeing all the data gathered in full and with no assumptions made and no conclusions drawn it is impossible to fully analyse.

I do honestly think it's a damn site closer than a lot of these survey people would have us believe. Afterall the motor industry is very competitive, cars are quite a lot of money and there isn't real a huge number of car makers.

I suspect crap dealers are as likely the biggest downfall on many marques rather than the actual cars.

[tonym911]

300bhp/ton said:

I suspect crap dealers are as likely the biggest downfall on many marques rather than the actual cars.

I think you're probably right there. But the best car in the world is pants if your dealer backup is rubbish. It's all connected. You see horror stories in mag helpdesk features that make you catch your breath at the sheer arrogance not so much of dealers (whose incompetence is usually hidden from the wider world) as of manufacturers. I see for example that Mercedes is refusing to do a recall on a batch of 900 '09 model C220CDIs that lose power without warning – even though many many owners have experienced this phenomenon on public roads.