JD Power Initial Quality Study 2005
Well, if you’re a Mazda owner, you won’t like these results. Beaten only by Suzuki, Mazda came in second to last in the latest JD Power Initial Quality Study for 2005. It was in good company, though, with the likes of Land Rover, Volkswagen, Porsche and Volvo. Luxury brands topped the list, including the not-surprising Lexus, Jaguar and BMW. Most American brands were worse than average.
Read the full story at USA Today. Funnily enough, almost every version of this news emphasized the top brands or how GM or Hummer fared. Few mentioned the worst brands, or discussed what the numbers really mean in context (USA Today did though).
“Neal Oddes, director of product research for J.D. Power, said the industry has been showing large gains over the past several years. The average was 176 problems per 100 cars in 1998.” So even the worst cars on this year’s list are better than what “average” cars were a mere 7 years ago. Quality is definitely improving throughout the industry.
May 22nd, 2005 at 5:55 pm
If cars are getting so much better, why is it that they seem to be far far more fragile, and plasticy, and why do I find more people generally disassisfied to the point they would rather lease then purchase, so they can have a trouble free car.
Used to be you bought a car and kept it for 20 odd years.
Rob Menard
Toronto, Canada