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10th August 2006

The gap in long-term quality between luxury and non-luxury brands has been cut in half during the past four years, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 US market Vehicle Dependability Study just released, in which Lexus comes first among three-year old vehicles with 136 problems notified per 100 vehicles, and Land Rover last with 438, against an all-makes average of 227. Jaguar came much higher - in 8th position - in the rankings, one place ahead of BMW.

The study, which measures problems experienced by original owners of 3-year-old (2003 model-year) vehicles, finds that there is an ever-smaller gap in reported problems between luxury and higher-volume brands - averaging 15 PP100, down from 31 PP100 in 2003. Quality improvements with non-luxury brands are seen primarily in two categories - ride, handling, braking, and engine and transmission -- which both have a strong impact on customer satisfaction.

J.D. Power says the presence of several non-luxury brands among the top-ranking brands in the industry further underscores the shrinking dependability gap between luxury and non-luxury brands. While Lexus is the top-ranking brand in vehicle dependability for a 12th consecutive year and luxury-make Cadillac ranks fourth, three of the top five-ranking brands in vehicle dependability are non-luxury makes. Mercury and Buick, respectively, follow Lexus in the brand rankings, and Toyota ranks fifth.

Commenting to Auto Week magazine on Land Rover’s bottom placing in the survey, Al Kammerer, Land Rover/Jaguar director of product development, said Land Rover had fixed the problems detailed in the survey, which related in part to electronics involved in changing Range Rover engines from BMW-supplied units to Jaguar engines. Land Rover engineers did not account for all the different electronic connections that a Land Rover must mate to, compared with Jaguar, which triggered fault codes in the software that lit up the vehicles’ engine warning light.In addition to the engine warning light, J.D. Power survey respondents mentioned brake noise and difficulty closing the Range Rover Sport's tailgate.

"Seventy to 80% of all quality problems have their root in poor engineering," Kammerer told the magazine. "We have gone back and fixed those goofs and have the data to prove it."

Mr. Kammerer said Land Rover’s warranty costs had reduced by “well beyond 20%” since last year.

2006 Vehicle Dependability rankings - problems per 100 vehicles:

Lexus, 136

Mercury,151

Buick, 153

Cadillac, 163

Toyota, 179

Acura, 184

Honda, 194

Jaguar, 210

BMW, 212

Infiniti, 215

Lincoln,220

Ford, 224

Oldsmobile, 224

Industry Average, 227

Chrysler, 232

Pontiac, 232

Subaru, 232

GMC, 239

Mercedes-Benz, 240

Chevrolet, 241

Nissan, 242

Mazda, 243

Porsche, 248

Hyundai, 253

Dodge, 258

Mitsubish, 260

Jeep, 264

Volvo, 272

Audi, 279

MINI, 280

Isuzu, 283

Saturn, 289

Volkswagen, 299

HUMMER, 307

Kia, 310

Suzuki, 318

Saab, 326

Land Rover, 438

(J.D.Power, Autoweek.com, 9 August)