Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yea, pretty much. When Ford introduced several years ago their infotainment thing, it was full of bugs, and this resulted in a large slide in such ratings. I was surprised when I saw the ratings, but upon reading, all centered around this stuff, nothing to do with the rest of the car which was fine (Explorer if I recall correctly).
And, I suspect, long-time loyal owners (like me) that will never even consider another Ford.
I think I've been sent a JD Power survey after the last 2-3 new car purchasers. I always returned it but didn't think it was worth a whole for a prospective to use in considering a purchase. Depending on an issue, it may reflect the quality of the dealer rather than the car.
They should be sending them out months and years after purchase, especially since folks like us keep their cars for a long time.
The only surprises for me are Toyota and Chrysler. I understand Dodge being near the top, everything they make is relatively old and should have the bugs worked out by now. Chrysler though, they only make the 300, which is ancient, and the Pacifica van. Is the Pacifica that bad?
I'm very surprised to see Toyota below average. They seem to have fit and finish figured out from what I've seen. I wonder what drug them down? I know Entune has had some complaints, but again, is it that bad? My wife's Avalon has Entune 3.0 and I haven't had any issues with usability or performance.
I think I've been sent a JD Power survey after the last 2-3 new car purchasers. I always returned it but didn't think it was worth a whole for a prospective to use in considering a purchase. Depending on an issue, it may reflect the quality of the dealer rather than the car.
They should be sending them out months and years after purchase, especially since folks like us keep their cars for a long time.
That's one of my pet peeves with these surveys. None of their standard press releases (including JD Power and Consumer Reports) focus on anything over 3-years old. These days, darn near every car can go 3 years with nearly zero issue. There is a big difference between true mechanical problems and attributes of a car that a customer may not like such as multimedia interfaces. (Where they actually work correctly, but maybe the customer prefers a touch screen over a wheel/mouse pointer, etc.)
These 3-month and 3-year "quality" reports tend to focus on the latter given there aren't many cars with mechanical problems early-on. Then they call these reports "Long Term Durability" or whatever and there is nothing "Long-Term" about 3 years not to mention most of the issues reported aren't related to durability in my opinion, either.
Yea, pretty much. When Ford introduced several years ago their infotainment thing, it was full of bugs, and this resulted in a large slide in such ratings. I was surprised when I saw the ratings, but upon reading, all centered around this stuff, nothing to do with the rest of the car which was fine (Explorer if I recall correctly).
I got an Explorer as a rental with Sync in it probably 5 years ago or so. I didn't realize it until I'd already left the airport but the Sync system had completely hung, and wouldn't let me turn the heat on, change the channel, anything. This was in January in Nebraska - it was cold as hell. It wasn't worth going back to the airport since the car sat in my parents driveway until I flew home, but that turned me off from anything with Sync in it ever again - I couldn't even reboot it without pulling the battery cables. Turning the car off and on didn't do anything. I've had 2 Jeeps now with the 8.4 Uconnect and I can count on a few fingers how many times either of them froze over 6 years. And when it did - you hold down two buttons, it reboots and you're off and running. The user interface is far easier to use, cleaner and faster as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by himain
There is no way a Kia or a Dodge is better quality than a Lexus or Toyota.
Mechanical? Probably not, my wifes 2004 Camry has been pretty solid. Driver usability? Entune sucks. She wants another Camry so I'll deal with it, but Toyota has about the worst user interface I've ever seen. Although Mazda's is worse.
Dodge, or any other Chrysler Corp. vehicle is likely to be very far removed from the most reliable.
Historically, they have always lagged behind GM & Ford, let alone the imports.
I got an Explorer as a rental with Sync in it probably 5 years ago or so. I didn't realize it until I'd already left the airport but the Sync system had completely hung, and wouldn't let me turn the heat on, change the channel, anything. This was in January in Nebraska - it was cold as hell. It wasn't worth going back to the airport since the car sat in my parents driveway until I flew home, but that turned me off from anything with Sync in it ever again - I couldn't even reboot it without pulling the battery cables. Turning the car off and on didn't do anything. I've had 2 Jeeps now with the 8.4 Uconnect and I can count on a few fingers how many times either of them froze over 6 years. And when it did - you hold down two buttons, it reboots and you're off and running. The user interface is far easier to use, cleaner and faster as well.
Mechanical? Probably not, my wifes 2004 Camry has been pretty solid. Driver usability? Entune sucks. She wants another Camry so I'll deal with it, but Toyota has about the worst user interface I've ever seen. Although Mazda's is worse.
In the early 2000's at Ford we were "lucky" enough to be able to sign an exclusive with Microsoft to produce game changing multimedia interfaces in our vehicles. Sync was going to change the game and in some ways was the first of the new wave multimedia interfaces, now known as ipads sticking out of our dashes.
It was a big deal, celebrated in the company as our first move to outsource that kind of thing. (Hey, we're car people, not tech people, so lets hire the experts to handle the tech stuff.) OOOOPPS! Little did we know how freaking unorganized and poorly run this part of Microsoft was. It was awful, and the entire reason the initial Sync system was slow and buggy was due to the crappy processors in them. Took years to unwind all of that as you have to wait for the next vehicle program to re-do it, but the new Sync3 system (without Microsoft!) is finallly working as intended.
We went from the Penthouse to the Outhouse real quick with that mess.
This has nothing to do with reliability.
All it means is that it has a good infotainment interface.
In 2020 "quality" surveys have pretty much jumped the shark.
There's little to nothing to report in the way of actual issues, so this is what it's come down to.
No kidding. This particular survey has always been kind of ridiculous.
Now, if someone can't get their Iphone to connect to the stereo, oh my goodness they got a lemon.
Seriously though. In the old days, they I don't think they knocked a few points off if your tape deck got stuck. Kind of the same thing in my opinion.
There is no way I'd buy a car based on this list.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
