2016 JD Power Vehicle Initial Quality Study Released!

[exar333]

Porsche is high because they're reasonably built for a low-miles weekend car. When you see a result like that it's almost certainly because they don't normalize for mileage.

Porsche's #1 and #2 seller (by a significant margin) are SUVs, so yeah I don't think you are very accurate here.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Porsche's #1 and #2 seller (by a significant margin) are SUVs, so yeah I don't think you are very accurate here.

Pretty sure Chevy sells more Tahoes in a year than Porsche sells total. Same with Suburbans.

And people use the hell out of Chevys. I'd be willing to bet some good money that the average Porsche doesn't see as many miles per year.

I'd personally think there was something wrong with any low-volume manufacturer whose quality wasn't near the top. It's far easier to keep control of such things with low production.
The fact that GM has so many models up there given how many they sell is really, really amazing. Same goes for Ford.

 

[agent00f]

Porsche's #1 and #2 seller (by a significant margin) are SUVs, so yeah I don't think you are very accurate here.

Just look at how marginal the differences are. The SUVs are basically VW-quality; the sports cars are what boosts them up the list.

 

[mafia]

Therein lies the problem... without a qualifier of WHAT issues are going wrong, then a car can be rated terribly for stupid stuff like "navigation is slow", "cup holder arms don't retract", or "trunk lights flicker". Meanwhile, the car runs for half a million miles with no engine or transmission issues at all.

I think they have a of scoring it based on the severity of the issues.

 

[joutlaw]

Not surprised one bit about Honda. I think they lost their way at some point in mid 2000s.

My wife's 94 Accord was built like a tank. This thing took a beating from when she was 15 to 27. It had 286K miles on the original engine and transmission when the speedometer and odometer quit working. My guess is it had a little over 300K when we sold it.

The thing to remember is how much simpler cars were even in the mid 90s. That 94 Accord had a single zone A/C with a cable controlled temperature control - i.e. a cable closed a valve to the heater core when moved all the way to cold and opened when you moved it to heat. Now vehicles have actuators that do the same task with small motors. Which one is going to break first?

 

[dainthomas]

Not surprised one bit about Honda. I think they lost their way at some point in mid 2000s.

My wife's 94 Accord was built like a tank. This thing took a beating from when she was 15 to 27. It had 286K miles on the original engine and transmission when the speedometer and odometer quit working. My guess is it had a little over 300K when we sold it.

The thing to remember is how much simpler cars were even in the mid 90s. That 94 Accord had a single zone A/C with a cable controlled temperature control - i.e. a cable closed a valve to the heater core when moved all the way to cold and opened when you moved it to heat. Now vehicles have actuators that do the same task with small motors. Which one is going to break first?

I was always under the impression that things controlled by computer were more reliable than things controlled mechanically (with cables, rods etc)? Granted, a broken cable is easier to troubleshoot and probably cheaper to fix.

 

[joutlaw]

Not so much in my 2004 Silverado. The actuator would go whacko and blow hot and cold. Basically it was cycling back and forth. In the summer I would wait for it to go cold and unplug it. In the winter, vice versa.

The other problem is where the actuators are located. Luckily, the one zone that went bad in my Silverado was under the dash accessible with a cover removed. The other one zone luckily didn't fail, but it was a much more inaccessible location. They also cost about $85/piece to replace.

 

[agent00f]

Not surprised one bit about Honda. I think they lost their way at some point in mid 2000s.

My wife's 94 Accord was built like a tank. This thing took a beating from when she was 15 to 27. It had 286K miles on the original engine and transmission when the speedometer and odometer quit working. My guess is it had a little over 300K when we sold it.

The thing to remember is how much simpler cars were even in the mid 90s. That 94 Accord had a single zone A/C with a cable controlled temperature control - i.e. a cable closed a valve to the heater core when moved all the way to cold and opened when you moved it to heat. Now vehicles have actuators that do the same task with small motors. Which one is going to break first?

I think that happened with the bulk of the japanese manufacturers. Toyotas/Nissans/etc around that earlier era were all very well built to withstand the test of time.

They didn't so much as become a whole lot less reliable over time, but there are definitely instances of cost cutting on basic materials (like large soft-touch pieces) to make up for more complex features that customers expect.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Not so much in my 2004 Silverado. The actuator would go whacko and blow hot and cold. Basically it was cycling back and forth. In the summer I would wait for it to go cold and unplug it. In the winter, vice versa.

The other problem is where the actuators are located. Luckily, the one zone that went bad in my Silverado was under the dash accessible with a cover removed. The other one zone luckily didn't fail, but it was a much more inaccessible location. They also cost about $85/piece to replace.

I replaced the same one in my 04 Suburban recently. It was easy. Cost like 28 bucks.