New JD Power IQS
#1
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CLK500 Cabriolet
New JD Power IQS
Nice to see that MB has moved up a few slots on the JD Power Initial Quality Study, now beating Toyota and Infiniti. Still way behind Lexus and BMW, but the movement seems to be in the right direction.
http://jdpower.com/pdf/2005069.pdf
http://jdpower.com/pdf/2005069.pdf
#3
Keep in mind how long "Initial Quality" is. 90 days of ownership. Hardly anything to get excited about. Even Jaguar is up there in the rankings. Korean car makers are also in the top eschelon of JD Power's IQS. Near worthless study in my estimation. Just a springboard for carmakers to push their wares as "quality built" cars, even when they are not. A car can have 3 problems per 100 vehicles the first 90 days and then fall apart after a year and it will rank highly. Or it can be built to last a long time but have some issues which are prevalent.
The one that matters, if at all, is their Vehicle Dependability Study. That measures a 3 year span.
The one that matters, if at all, is their Vehicle Dependability Study. That measures a 3 year span.
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What a gloomy group. I would rather have a car that didn't have any problems when I buy it than one that is immediately beset with issues. Of course, one has to wait and see, but my experience with a number of cars over the years has been that the most irritating problems (the kind it takes numerous visits to fix) usually show up in the first few months of ownership.
#6
Originally Posted by lawprof
What a gloomy group. I would rather have a car that didn't have any problems when I buy it than one that is immediately beset with issues. Of course, one has to wait and see, but my experience with a number of cars over the years has been that the most irritating problems (the kind it takes numerous visits to fix) usually show up in the first few months of ownership.
Routinely top tier iqs companies fare very poorly in comprehensive quality tests. So in that respect, I would prefer a lower ranking iqs car with better overall reliability than a high ranking iqs car with a gloomy future ahead of it. All this aside I personally feel MB quality is not up to the standards that are expected of a premier luxury marque.
Cheers
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Mercedes all the way!
i've actually never trusted the jd powers survey. hey, even in the 3-year study, what participants are asked are to rank how they like their cars. it is so subjective it might as well not be done. no surprise at all that budget cars tend to score higher while luxury marquees come down. and that any "car-of-the-moment" would score highly since its owners don't want to admit to problems. imho jd is nothing more than a marketing and advertising tool. i'll wait for a survey where they actually ask the car service people for hard numbers, not opinions.
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#8
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Not that easy...
[QUOTE=i'll wait for a survey where they actually ask the car service people for hard numbers, not opinions.[/QUOTE]
So then you would get answers skewed by the most cars/models worked on, which is usually the most sold. I'd like to see surveys based on actual numbers of fatal problems and another with nuisance problems per unit sold. Not that nuisance problems aren't important, they are. But comparing cars for a features that are not equivalent is useless, and subjective comparisons are just that as well. Would you find as many people complaining about cabin noise in a KIA as those in an S500? But you would find equal complaints if their cars wouldn't start at all. Just my .02, surveys are only as good as the questions and audience. All that being said, my MB experience has been less than expected in the problem department. Despite the excellent driving experience when it is operating correctly I don't know that I want to put up with the anxiety, loss of time and money, and uncertainty with my next auto purchase. Second best performance is not that much less when all other factors are weighed. It's just transportation after all.
So then you would get answers skewed by the most cars/models worked on, which is usually the most sold. I'd like to see surveys based on actual numbers of fatal problems and another with nuisance problems per unit sold. Not that nuisance problems aren't important, they are. But comparing cars for a features that are not equivalent is useless, and subjective comparisons are just that as well. Would you find as many people complaining about cabin noise in a KIA as those in an S500? But you would find equal complaints if their cars wouldn't start at all. Just my .02, surveys are only as good as the questions and audience. All that being said, my MB experience has been less than expected in the problem department. Despite the excellent driving experience when it is operating correctly I don't know that I want to put up with the anxiety, loss of time and money, and uncertainty with my next auto purchase. Second best performance is not that much less when all other factors are weighed. It's just transportation after all.
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2011 BMW 335d Sport Package
My 1988 Porsche 911 was #1 that year. The car was flawless and extremely reliable. I sold it at 146,000 miles, but not because of any reliability problems.