Are JD Power Studies Relevant Or Just A Numbers Game?

Whether you’re a hard-core car enthusiast or you think of your vehicle as an appliance, you don’t want automotive problems that demand dealership visits or generate roadside delays. One of the key sources of information about automotive quality is the J.D. Power and Associates U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS), which the company has been conducting since 1987. But how, exactly, is quality measured in this survey?

You begin to wonder when you compare the 2011 IQS results with those from 2010 [see below]. For example, GMC, Mazda, and Toyota each moved up 14 or 15 positions on the chart, while Ford plummeted 18 places—from fifth to 23rd. We haven’t noticed a huge degradation in Ford quality during the past year, so what’s going on?

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USNA1999 - 12/5/2011 5:21:18 PM

-1 Boost

JD Power is the biggest IRRELEVANT numbers game ever!

irishmike - 12/5/2011 7:47:52 PM

-1 Boost

irrelevant

enthusiastx11 - 12/5/2011 8:25:06 PM

-1 Boost

was very relevant....in 1985....when quality was radically variable.

today, the difference between #1 and dead last is negligible. only about an issue per year.

85bmw745i - 12/7/2011 10:31:03 PM

+2 Boost

How do you think the first 2 generation Ford explorers were the number one selling SUV's despite how unbelievably cheap their interiors were and how noisy and crappy they drive. On the highway any little movement of the steering wheel made the back end feel like it was fishtailing, and it swayed so much and was so unstable it feli like you were driving a greyhound bus in a hurricane. How do else do you explain the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Avenger selling so well despite being the worst cars in their segments. Americans are gullible thats why we fall for all of the marketing schemes and lies in American car advertisements. Notice how none of the imports compare themselves to American cars nor do they try to compare their top model to the base model of the competition like Domestics do.

MorePower - 12/6/2011 2:30:47 AM

-1 Boost

Great for Marketing, but as useful as a straw-poll result.