Recently, JD Power released the 2022 American car brand reliability research report, the results show that the first place is Kia Automobile, only 145, the second is Buick, 147, the third is Hyundai Motor, 148. The worst of these was Land Rover, which reached 284.
Compared with the previous JD Power's 2021 China Vehicle Reliability Research Report, it can be found that the difference between the quality data of Chinese and American cars is very large, and even if it is viewed separately, the ranking of the list is confusing. As consumers, how should you view these reports?
Beauty List: Korean brand hegemony
When it comes to reliability, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely Toyota, which has been doing well on this list, and Lexus has won the championship for many years. But this year, Toyota and Lexus collectively "overturned", Toyota only ranked 5th, Lexus 6th.
And Kia, which is declining in China, actually won the championship, and hyundai ranks third. Geniseis ranked fourth and is also the most reliable luxury brand. While Hyundai and Kia have been plagued by a series of embarrassing recalls in the U.S., that hasn't stopped South Korean brands from dominating the list. Inexplicably, there is no Tess ranking this time, and Tesla scored 176 points in the 2021 JD Power Reliability Report.
On this year's list, Buick's reliability ranks second, surpassing all Japanese brands. Moreover, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Lincoln also performed well.
In addition to Toyota and Lexus in Japanese cars, the quality is still excellent, and the performance of other brands is very general, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Acura, Infiniti, etc., and even below the industry average. Nissan's performance is not unexpected, because in China, its CVT transmission has more problems, but Honda's performance is indeed unexpected.
Of the three BBA brands, only BMW's reliability is above average, and Mercedes-Benz is slightly below the industry average. As for Audi, it's really stronger than Jaguar, but only a little bit stronger.
Ranking: The less you sell, the higher the reliability?
In November last year, J.D. Power released the 2021 China Vehicle Reliability Research Report, and GAC FCA Jeep, whose sales have declined in recent years, actually won the first place in the list with 115 PP100; FAW Toyota followed close behind, ranking second in the list with 125 PP100 results; the third position was jointly won by Dongfeng Peugeot and FAW Hongqi.
JEEP and Dongfeng Peugeot's share in The domestic market is small, Hongqi has risen rapidly in the past two years, but the overall market base is also small, they enter the top three of the list, is it a satire on the Chinese people "do not know the goods"?
In addition, the report shows that Porsche is the first luxury car brand on sale in China, which has achieved a good result of 120 PP100s; Land Rover's performance is also very good, with 127 P100 ranking second in the list; surprisingly, BMW is inferior to Land Rover with 128 PP100 ranking third in the list.
It is worth mentioning that in the reliability ranking of mainstream automobile brands, Skoda, Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Beijing Hyundai, etc., surpassed Guangqi Honda and SAIC Volkswagen, and it seems that among the joint venture brands, smaller sales performed better in reliability.
Sampling and independence are questioned
JD Power has been doing reliability research on cars for 33 years, and its experience is certainly rich, but in recent years, there have been more and more voices questioning the fairness and authority of JD Power, mainly focusing on two aspects.
First, the sample is too small. Taking JD POWER's 2021 China Vehicle Reliability Research Report as an example, according to its official introduction, the study measures the problems encountered by Chinese car owners between 13 and 48 months in the past 6 months, based on the real feedback of 36,860 car owners who bought cars between December 2016 and May 2020; the study covered 239 models of 49 brands, and the data collection work was carried out in 70 major Chinese cities between January 2021 and June 2021.
You know, China's automobile production and sales in 2021 exceeded 20 million, more than 30,000 car owners can only account for a few tenths of a percent, and there are 661 cities in China, and compared with this total, the representativeness of these samples is relatively weak.
Second, JD Power's profit model in China consists of three parts: conducting overall industry research and selling reports, customizing research services for corporate customers, and training corporate employees. The main source of profit is the first two, and training enterprise employees is only a side business. This means that J.D.Power is selling reports to customers, conducting research for customers, and in the end, it needs to objectively rank customers. Both as a referee and as an athlete, the independence of J.D.Power's third-party characters is challenged.
To avoid suspicion, J.D.Power made it clear after each survey result that it was strictly forbidden to use the results for advertising and promotion. But in fact, many car companies are using this ranking to make a big fuss. Some manufacturers also said that there is no more well-known survey than JD Power in China, such reports have reference value for the development of the company, through various subdivisions of the project, you can clearly understand the weaknesses of the product, in order to prescribe the right medicine.
Rationally look at car reliability rankings
I believe that many people, even old drivers, see these two lists, there will be a feeling of faith collapse. In fact, for the jd power list, consumers can be used as a basic reference, but can not be fully believed, or eat melon.
First of all, car reliability and quality is a complex system, this simple you first, I rank second, often ignore some of the truth. For example, the more configurations, especially the more intelligent models, the probability of problems is relatively higher, and Toyota's reliability has always been excellent, which is inseparable from Toyota's high degree of practicality in configuration. Looking at Toyota's locomotive system, it is self-evident; Land Rover's reliability is often at the bottom, partly because there are many electronic configurations, and electronic configurations are not Land Rover's strengths.
In addition, new technologies, new products just launched, there may also be a reliability "crisis", like many years ago Volkswagen began to promote TSI + DSG combination in China, burning oil, a variety of complaints of setbacks, Toyota in the TNGA platform of the 8th generation Camry just listed, there are also oil emulsification, mud door (engine compartment splash like mud), handle door (door can not be opened) and other feedback, now these problems are basically solved.
There is also a difference in the owner's psychological expectations for the quality of the car, 500,000 buy a Mercedes-Benz E-class, if the car is abnormal, the owner will most likely think that this is a quality problem, in the J.D. Power survey, it will definitely be counted as a fault in PP100, but if this abnormal sound appears on the Corolla, it may not be a problem, if it appears on the 50,000 pieces of Wuling Hongguang, the owner may not care at all.
The time span must also be taken into account that the ranking of JD Power only selects a model with a 3-year age, for a car, 3 years is actually very short, and the mileage is different, there are many brand models, often open hundreds of thousands of kilometers without overhaul, so as to show reliability and resistance, and some of the first 3 years or the first 100,000 kilometers of the state is very good, but then on a variety of problems, plus the owner's use habits, car environment, maintenance status, etc., these varying conditions, it is difficult to standardize the statistics and ranking.
Therefore, consumers do not have to rely too much on J.D. Power data, manufacturers do not have to be too superstitious about the utility of J.D. Power rankings on the brand, the real car quality reputation is not in these big-profile evaluations, but in the mouths of car repair masters.