J.D. Power and Associates released its 2013 U.S. Automotive Emerging Technologies Study today.
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Michelin came out on top in three of four categories in J.D. Power’s 2013 U.S. Original Equipment Tire Customer Satisfaction Study.
According to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates, run-flat tires are more likely to be replaced due to a flat or a blowout compared to conventional tires.
Bottom 10 Vehicles with the Largest Declines Dependability
Quality is an ever-moving target; it’s something automakers have to constantly monitor. And like the Mongol hordes conquering vast swaths of Asia in the 13th century, problems can easily overwhelm an unsuspecting company’s defenses. Like arrows toppling a mighty war elephant, just a few small issues can devastate even the most reliable vehicle on the road. To keep these nomadic defects at bay, engineers and product planners must remain vigilant.
Along with Consumer Reports, J.D. Power is one of the major firms that tracks automotive quality. Its annual Vehicle Dependability Study is highly anticipated by OEMs and media alike. Think of it as a report card for automakers.
For nearly a quarter-century the study has kept a careful eye on quality by tracking problems per 100 vehicles (PP100). It measures things that have gone wrong with 3-year-old cars and trucks as reported by their original owners.
Like America’s Most Wanted, J.D. power has just released a list of 10 vehicles that have suffered the largest declines in quality. These vehicles have had the greatest year-over-year increase in PP100. Some of the cars and trucks on the list may really surprise you.
For the second year in a row, Lexus topped J.D. Power and Associates dependability study and the Lexus RX crossover had the fewest reported problems.
User satisfaction with factory-installed navigation systems is on the decline while the number of drivers turning to their smartphone for directions is rising.
Fuel economy remains the most influential purchase reason for buyers when shopping for new vehicles, according to the latest J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Avoider Study.
Despite finally starting to gain traction, EVs and plug-in hybrids will continue to struggle until prices decrease according to a new study.
Infotainment systems are increasingly important in new car purchases, and a new J.D. Power study released today reveals that customers who opt for premium audio system are more satisfied with their new car overall.
In a recent study released by J.D. Power Asia Pacific, overall customer satisfaction with new-vehicle sales has declined, while fuel efficiency is the most frequently cited factor in choosing a new vehicle.
While interior comfort used to be reserved for luxury cars, better seats are finding their way into the cheaper compact and subcompact segments according to J.D. Power and Associates’ latest study.
It turns out that hand-free communication and controls in a new car tend to make new vehicle owners happier with the overall performance of their new car, according to J.D. Power and Associates.
A vehicle appeal study of 2012 models has just been released by J.D. Power and Associates, and it shows that smaller cars are becoming more desirable for consumers.
Overall, drivers are more satisfied with their insurance companies this year than last, according to J. D. Power’s 2012 U.S. Auto Insurance Study.
There are a lot of car stereotypes out there, like that Toyota builds dull appliances. While true on many fronts, the Japanese automaker does also make exciting sporty cars like the Scion FR-S, and Lexus LFA, both praised for their exhilarating rides, edgy styling and pulse-raising performance. But there’s another stereotype that needs to be dealt with.
Likely you’ve heard the phrase “German engineering” more than a few times in your life and there’s a popular misconception that it equals good reliability. German cars are well engineered, sometimes to be amazing performance machines and sometimes to be incredibly high-tech (and often both) but, Porsche aside, German cars don’t have the best track record for reliability.
J.D. Power has released a study today which details the top five new technologies which car buyers want in their cars.
Utilizing auto insurance is a reality we all must face once and a while, and according to J.D. Power and Associates, the services provided to the public are slowly getting worse.
The findings from the U.S. auto claims satisfaction study show that the overall level of customer satisfaction, when it comes to the auto claims experience has declined to the lowest level it has been at in the last three calendar quarters.
One of the biggest losses in service is the overall time it takes for your vehicle to get repaired, starting on the day you make the claim. The average wait time is now 15.8 days, compared to the average wait time in the last quarter of 2011, which was 15 days, wait times have increased almost a full day.
Not all the blame lays with insurance companies however, as almost half of the people who reported an increase in wait times also say that they brought their cars in on a convenient day for them, rather than as soon possible. This is probably the leading contributing factor to the fact that repair times have increased as well, because people wait for holidays or the weekend to get their vehicles serviced, thus backing up the mechanics.
The overall satisfaction in service interaction and appraisal dropped as well. “This suggests insurers need to do a better job of managing customer expectations for claims processing and vehicle repair times,” said Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power and Associates.
Have you had an insurance claim recently? Were you pleased with your service? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
Car and Driver has published an article expressing its gripes with J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study, stating that its results tell us less about a vehicle’s defects then we might think. J.D. Power’s IQS measures new-vehicle quality after 90-days of ownership and has done so since 1987, but the advent of more technologically advanced features are now impacting quality results.
Take Ford for example. From 2010 to 2011, Ford dropped 18 places (from fifth to 23rd) in J.D.’s IQS, but one would argue that Ford’s quality has only increased over the past year – surely not decreased that significantly. The reasoning behind it is the fact that J.D. Power is voicing the opinion of the consumer and consumers are complaining about design issue rather than a functionality problem. That is, a customer finds it frustrating to use Ford’s MyFord Touch system and notches it as a problem, rather than observing a loose electrical connection, something that really impacts the quality of a vehicle.
Another great example from Ford is the new PowerShift dual-clutch automatic found in their new Fiesta. Customers are complaining about its shift quality compared to a conventional automatic transmission with a torque converter, but there has hardly been any actual mechanical issues problems with the transmission, if at all.
Unfortunately a lot of the manufacturers are actually changing the functionality of the vehicle because of these complaints, such as Porsche consumers complaining about brake pad dust. Obviously the better-performing a brake pad is, the more dust it produces; but the general laymen finds it an inconvenience and even a quality issue if a brake pad produces so much dust. As a result, Porsche vehicles are probably equipped with less-capable pads than they originally were, all because of these “quality” issues being reported by J.D. Power.
At the end of the day though, it’s still the voice of the consumer that manufacturers care about.
[Source: Car and Driver]
AutoGuide.com would like to announce that Charles Britt of Butler, Tn., is the recipient of a $500 Discount Tire gift card. Britt was randomly selected from the thousands of entries to the AutoGuide.com/J.D. Power Audience Survey.
Polling members of AutoGuide’s Forum Network, the survey asked questions to find out how social media and other online tools help to influence new car buying decisions.
The staff at AutoGuide.com would like to thank all those who participated. And congratulations to Charles Britt!
Want to win $500 towards a set of tires? You could be the lucky winner of a Discount Tire voucher for 500 big ones just be filling out a survey being put on by AutoGuide.com and J.D. Power.
The AutoGuide Audience Survey will ask questions regarding how social media and other online tools help influence your decision with respect to buying a car. The short survey can be filled out here and the data will be analyzed by J.D. Power as a means of helping discover what social media tools are used most by vehicle buyers. One participant will be randomly selected to win $500 towards a set of tires from Discount Tire.
Despite poor showings in various quality surveys, not to mention anecdotal evidence abound, Volkswagen is tackling its vehicle quality problems head on, and is openly discussing the steps it will take to remedy them.
The J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, regarded as the gold standard among industry types, pegged VW at 29th out of 32 brands, a poor showing for a company eager to sell 800,000 vehicles per year in the United States by 2018.
Volkswagen said that its warranty costs were down by 10 percent last year, and are on track for the same figure this year – a figure that’s adjusted for a new free maintenance program and a shorter warranty term. VW will be looking to improve its score on the J.D. Power survey, which includes not just defects but consumer complaints about functioning parts of the vehicle – a criteria that some automakers have begun criticizing.
[Source: USA Today]
Some good news for this recession: according to J.D. Power and Associates, the cars on sale today are more appealing than ever before—all the better to win consumers in this difficult economy.
Most appealing? How is J.D. Power able to gauge this seemingly-subjective criteria? Through customer surveys of 80 vehicle attributes, combined with sales figures, which is what J.D. Power does best. Since 1996, the Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout Study (APEAL) has been an attempt for the company to determine how much consumers enjoy the cars they’ve just bought, and despite difficult times for both the economy as well as the auto industry, people are indeed still buying cars and still giving their opinions on them.
The APEAL study found that new or redesigned models are both better-looking and have better fuel economy than their outgoing examples: two points that attract consumers more than anything else. J.D. Power maps this on a 1000-point scale, and from 778 total points in 2010, the industry average of overall vehicle appeal has jumped to 781 points—the most it’s ever been since the survey’s inception in 1996.
“The auto industry has taken a battering during the past few years,” said David Sargent, vice president of vehicle research. “However, it is clear that throughout this period, automakers have never lost sight of the fact that survival—and ultimately success—only comes from winning over customers in the showroom. Offering highly appealing vehicles is one of the primary means to succeed.”
The survey may be industry-wide, but certain manufacturers still stood out. BMW had three cars that received satisfactory ratings: the X3, Z4 and 5-Series all drove away with awards, as well as Dodge’s Challenger, Charger, and Durango. Ford and Honda each captured awards for the F-150 and Fiesta, as well as the Ridgeline and Odyssey, respectively. Some cars of note included the Chevrolet Volt, Range Rover, Lexus IS, MINI Countryman, Nissan Armada, Porsche Cayenne, Scion xB, Suzuki Kizashi, Volkswagen GTI, and the Hyundai Equus—which walked away with the highest APEAL score in the industry, beating out the usual suspects BMW 7-Series, Lexus LS and Mercedes S-Class for the first time, a point that will come to a Hyundai network television ad near you soon.
For the seventh year in a row, Porsche carried the highest APEAL score at 879. Suzuki, despite its aforementioned Kizashi, slithered by with the lowest. For the full ranking, click the jump to view lots of J.D. Power’s famous graphs.