There’s nothing quite like solid data upon which to base buying decisions, particularly when you consider that a new automobile is one of the largest investments most people make during a lifetime. As production methodology has improved over the last few decades, the world order for the most reliable marque has changed on an almost annual basis and the latest full year report from J.D. Power indicates that past reputations are no longer relevant.

Dodge and Kia topped the 2020 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, which provides fascinating insights into the reliability of every car manufacturer on the American market

Manufacturers don’t publish such data because it makes them look bad. Would you pay extra for a luxury vehicle if you knew it was more likely to give you problems? Take a look at the ladder and you’ll see that stablemates Jaguar and Land Rover had the last two places in this survey in 2018 and 2019, and they’ve been split this year by such well known luxury brands as Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volvo.

The ever-changing reliability profile of each marque does not reflect the general reputation each brand has for reliability.

The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study has been tracking the problems American owners experience with new cars for 34 years. Measured exactly after 90 days of ownership, it provides a benchmark for initial new vehicle quality that new car buyers should study prior to any purchase. According to J.D. Power, initial vehicle quality has proven to be an excellent predictor of long-term reliability.

The 2020 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study offers insights into the reliability profile for each brand that can be very informative for consumers

This survey more than any other has charted the fall of the Japanese brand names in the field in which they were once regarded as the benchmark: quality. Look back over the last five years of J.D. Power surveys and you can see that most Japanese brands did not improve while their Korean and domestic rivals did, and while the J.D. Power analysis is now more demanding, the Japanese names still trail most Korean and domestic brands.

Tesla is not officially ranked among other brands in the study as it doesn’t meet ranking criteria. “Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn’t grant us permission to survey its owners in 15 states where it is required,” said Doug Betts, president of the automotive division at J.D. Power. “However, we were able to collect a large enough sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states and, from that base, we calculated Tesla’s score.”

Tesla’s score must be a significant cause for worry, as at 250 PP100, it is nearly a full problem per car higher than the seven highest scorers in the survey (i.e. at 250 PPH, that equals 2.5 problems per car, where the leading marques have a better reliability score than 150 PPH, which is equal to 1.5 problems per car), and still trails the next poorest marque (Range Rover) by a massive margin.

More:
https://newatlas.com/automotive/jd-power-2020-reliability-car-manufacturer-america-2020/

That can’t be right. I saw a youtube video from a Tesla owner the other day and he reckons his car was grouse. The comments below the line supported him.

I knew someone who bought as brand new Dodge and every time it rained the carpet underneath her feet would get wet. She returned the car to the dealer for repair multiple times before it was found that, during manufacture, they had forgotten a rubber bung in the floor pan.

Mitsubishi – back in the 90’s when I worked for a company who supplied sealant spraying equipment to the automotive industry in Australia, it was often remarked by our staff that Mitsubishi had the best attention to detail and quality of finish.

Land Rover – the stand-out 4WD make that we consistently see broken down and/or being loaded onto tow trucks when we travel to remote® areas.

Speedy said:

I knew someone who bought as brand new Dodge and every time it rained the carpet underneath her feet would get wet. She returned the car to the dealer for repair multiple times before it was found that, during manufacture, they had forgotten a rubber bung in the floor pan.

Mitsubishi – back in the 90’s when I worked for a company who supplied sealant spraying equipment to the automotive industry in Australia, it was often remarked by our staff that Mitsubishi had the best attention to detail and quality of finish.

Land Rover – the stand-out 4WD make that we consistently see broken down and/or being loaded onto tow trucks when we travel to remote® areas.

lol. I meant remote/remoter

It also depends on which model you get. Just about all brands have good and bad ones in the range. Plus cost of repair. a model might get few problems but they may be expensive to fix. parts availability. etc etc etc.

JudgeMental said:

It also depends on which model you get. Just about all brands have good and bad ones in the range. Plus cost of repair. a model might get few problems but they may be expensive to fix. parts availability. etc etc etc.

I was driving a Kia today, Rio, it was rather wet. heaps of rain and puddles on the road. did not feel comfortable. could feel it being affected when you hit water.

Speedy said:

I knew someone who bought as brand new Dodge and every time it rained the carpet underneath her feet would get wet. She returned the car to the dealer for repair multiple times before it was found that, during manufacture, they had forgotten a rubber bung in the floor pan.

That must have made her want to get out of dodge.

JudgeMental said:

JudgeMental said:

It also depends on which model you get. Just about all brands have good and bad ones in the range. Plus cost of repair. a model might get few problems but they may be expensive to fix. parts availability. etc etc etc.

I was driving a Kia today, Rio, it was rather wet. heaps of rain and puddles on the road. did not feel comfortable. could feel it being affected when you hit water.

plus they are gutless. give me the camry any day.

Apparently they don’t have Suzukis in America? Am I just not seeing it on the list?

JudgeMental said:

JudgeMental said:

JudgeMental said:

It also depends on which model you get. Just about all brands have good and bad ones in the range. Plus cost of repair. a model might get few problems but they may be expensive to fix. parts availability. etc etc etc.

I was driving a Kia today, Rio, it was rather wet. heaps of rain and puddles on the road. did not feel comfortable. could feel it being affected when you hit water.

plus they are gutless. give me the camry any day.

Don’t know about Europe but in the UK if your engine is 2 litre or greater you get slugged with a much higher rego.
I got an upgrade once because they didn’t have any cars in the class I preordered, upgraded to a Rover, lovely car to drive but gutless with a 1.8 litre engine.
At home at that time I had a 4 litre AU Ford, you sort of notice the difference.

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

buffy said:

Apparently they don’t have Suzukis in America? Am I just not seeing it on the list?

There’s a Suzuki plant in Georgia, USA. I assume they are allowed to sell to the local market.

The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study has been tracking the problems American owners experience with new cars for 34 years. Measured exactly after 90 days of ownership, it provides a benchmark for initial new vehicle quality that new car buyers should study prior to any purchase. According to J.D. Power, initial vehicle quality has proven to be an excellent predictor of long-term reliability.

https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/why-consumer-reports-and-j-d-power-are-so-different/

some background on how these surveys are done.

Divine Angel said:

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

I saw that earlier. What are those things sticking up behind the seats?

Speedy said:

Divine Angel said:

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

I saw that earlier. What are those things sticking up behind the seats?

Flagpoles to fly your “I’m a rich fucker” flags.

I thought they were probably some sort of support thingies.

Speedy said:

Divine Angel said:

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

I saw that earlier. What are those things sticking up behind the seats?

pop-up roll over bars.

JudgeMental said:

Speedy said:

Divine Angel said:

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

I saw that earlier. What are those things sticking up behind the seats?

pop-up roll over bars.

https://www.lambopower.com/forum/index.php?/topic/72688-gallardo-spyders-roll-bars-deployed/

JudgeMental said:

Speedy said:

Divine Angel said:

Twenty minutes after being driven out of the showroom, a Lamborghini was totalled. It was apparently suffering a mechanical fault…
https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/brand-new-lamborghini-huracan-spyder-totaled-in-20-minutes/

I saw that earlier. What are those things sticking up behind the seats?

pop-up roll over bars.

I just zoomed in on the image and saw that a little hatch had been released for them to pop up. Nice.

buffy said:

Apparently they don’t have Suzukis in America? Am I just not seeing it on the list?

Or Skodas.

Rule 303 said:

buffy said:

Apparently they don’t have Suzukis in America? Am I just not seeing it on the list?

Or Skodas.

Found this https://youtu.be/mHMzL8qgt6k

Tamb said:

Rule 303 said:

buffy said:

Apparently they don’t have Suzukis in America? Am I just not seeing it on the list?

Or Skodas.

Found this https://youtu.be/mHMzL8qgt6k

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

PermeateFree said:

Tamb said:

Rule 303 said:

Or Skodas.

Found this https://youtu.be/mHMzL8qgt6k

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

Why?

Michael V said:

PermeateFree said:

Tamb said:

Found this https://youtu.be/mHMzL8qgt6k

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

Why?

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

PermeateFree said:

Michael V said:

PermeateFree said:

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

Why?

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

There are many Suzukis other than Sierra Jimny. However, I see they haven’t been sold in the USA since 2012.

PermeateFree said:

Michael V said:

PermeateFree said:

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

Why?

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

The Suzuki Swift is not particularly well known as an off road fun vehicle.

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

Actually there are many makes available in the US that aren’t listed here so perhaps they just didn’t get enough respondants for those makes to make the result significant, so they omitted them.

PermeateFree said:

Michael V said:

PermeateFree said:

Don’t think Suzukis would qualify for this type of survey.

Why?

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

Maybe for a Jimny (which is what I use my Jimny for, toddling around the bush tracks at our block), but my S cross is most definitely a normal road car. It’s not 4WD.

dv said:

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

Don’t worry about sibeen, he’ll just dismiss it as fake news.

dv said:

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

Surely all the buyers who report problems are paedophiles.

dv said:

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

What do you expect from someone who has his autographed picture and giant posters of his car pasted all around his bedroom.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

Surely all the buyers who report problems are paedophiles.

Go onto youtube and state that Tesla’s are a bit crap; you’ll get accused of worse :)

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Michael V said:

Why?

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

Maybe for a Jimny (which is what I use my Jimny for, toddling around the bush tracks at our block), but my S cross is most definitely a normal road car. It’s not 4WD.

From MV:
There are many Suzukis other than Sierra Jimny. However, I see they haven’t been sold in the USA since 2012.

Reliable?

The only way to know how reliable a car is to use it for ten years.
And by then it’s no longer sold in the same model.

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Too small and under powered, regarded as mainly an off road fun vehicle.

Maybe for a Jimny (which is what I use my Jimny for, toddling around the bush tracks at our block), but my S cross is most definitely a normal road car. It’s not 4WD.

From MV:
There are many Suzukis other than Sierra Jimny. However, I see they haven’t been sold in the USA since 2012.

I hadn’t caught up to that post. Apparently it was cars they stopped selling in 2012. There would still be some around, but I guess that is why they aren’t in rankings.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

At the risk of upsetting sibeen, this is hardly the first survey to have found unusually high numbers of problems reported by new buyers of Teslas.

Surely all the buyers who report problems are paedophiles.

Yes.

The problem is, they weren’t, until they bought a Tesla.

mollwollfumble said:

Reliable?

The only way to know how reliable a car is to use it for ten years.
And by then it’s no longer sold in the same model.

Or owned by the same hedge fund/investment company.

Or made in the same country.

Or possible to find spare parts for.

For some reason I am surprised to see Audi among the least reliable.