Why Consumer Reports and J.D. Power Are So Different
When Consumer Reports issued its two thousand twelve Annual Auto Reliability Survey on Monday, the big news was that Ford had glided once again in the rankings, coming to rest in 27th place out of twenty eight brands included in the analysis.
That news also placed a concentrate on Jaguar, which was at the bottom of the list for the 2nd consecutive year.
It all seemed so clear, unless one was also familiar with several studies done by J.D. Power & Associates, the market research rock-hard.
Then one might say: “Wait a minute. I thought Jaguar had done well recently.”
And it had done well in one of those studies. The J.D. Power two thousand twelve Initial Quality Probe put Jaguar in the No. Two spot (tied with Porsche) just behind the first-place Lexus.
If that seems puzzling in light of the Consumer Reports probe, it can also seem strange that Jaguar was 28th out of thirty two brands in a different J.D. Power probe, the two thousand twelve Vehicle Dependability Investigate.
Lest anyone think that Jaguar is a fluke, consider Toyota’s youth brand, Scion. Its results were the opposite of the Jaguar results: Scion was ranked very first in Consumer Reports’ reliability survey but was 26th in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Investigate.
The differences are due to the fact that each survey looks at different factors, according to information from officials at the two companies. The studies ask different questions and vary in whether they include fresh models, redesigned models or old models.
Monday’s Consumer Reports examine predicts the reliability of two thousand thirteen vehicles – those that are in the dealerships right now.
“What we are looking at is, all of the vehicles that are on sale now and predicting the reliability of those vehicles,” said Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports. “We want to tell you what cars are reliable now if you went out and bought a car today.”
It shows how well fresh cars that are on sale will hold up based on the most latest three model years of data, provided the model has not been redesigned for 2013.
J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Probe is a snapshot taken at a different period of time than Consumer Reports’ explore. And the J.D. Power probe looks at initial quality, not dependability.
The Initial Quality Explore looks at problems owners have with their fresh vehicles in the very first ninety days of ownership. It broadly defines problems as things that have “caused a accomplish breakdown or malfunction, or where controls or features may work as designed, but are difficult to use or understand.”
It gives equal weight to problems that are defects, which can be immobilized, and elements that are working as intended, yet rankle owners; the latter cannot be immobilized instantly, if ever.
The Consumer Reports survey asks respondents whether they have had any problems with their cars “in the past twelve months that you considered serious because of cost, failure, safety or downtime.”
J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Explore, meantime, measures problems experienced by the original owners of three-year-old vehicles. It can be valuable to consumers in the market for a used car. The two thousand twelve dependability examine looks at problems with two thousand nine vehicles that their original owners had with those vehicles in the previous twelve months.
In that regard alone, the J.D. Power dependability explore is different from the Consumer Reports predicted-reliability examine. The J.D. Power probe looks at one model year over a three-year period, while the Consumer Reports survey looks at three model years — in the case of a two thousand thirteen model, for example, Consumer Reports looks at the 2012, two thousand eleven and two thousand ten model years.
As for the J.D. Power studies of initial quality and vehicle dependability, “we see a strong correlation inbetween how a model performs in I.Q.S. and how they perform in V.D.S.,” said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive research at J.D. Power & Associates. Those that perform well coming out of the gate are more likely to sustain that quality and dependability over those next three years than those that begin with poor initial quality, he said.
The key in comparing these two J.D. Power studies is to look at different years. A consumer would have to compare the two thousand twelve Vehicle Dependability Examine to the two thousand nine Initial Quality Examine to see how the two thousand nine models held up over three years.
While there can be differences inbetween the Consumer Reports and J.D. Power studies, there can be similarities as well. Ford is an example.
The Ford brand fell last year and this year in the Consumer Reports reliability investigate. This year it is 27th out of twenty eight brands. It also fell in the J.D. Power initial quality explore to 27th out of thirty four brands.
According to past and current interviews with researchers at both companies, Ford fell in both surveys for the same reasons: problems with the MyFord/MyLincoln Touch control system and the rough-shifting PowerShift automatic transmission.
To see how the two thousand twelve Ford models fare in the J.D. Power vehicle dependability investigate, we will have to wait until the two thousand fifteen probe comes out.
As for consumers attempting to figure out how to use this sometimes conflicting, sometimes similar information, the comforting ideal would be to find a brand or model that does well in each of the studies, albeit that might be a challenge.
Why Consumer Reports and J
Why Consumer Reports and J.D. Power Are So Different
When Consumer Reports issued its two thousand twelve Annual Auto Reliability Survey on Monday, the big news was that Ford had glided once again in the rankings, coming to rest in 27th place out of twenty eight brands included in the analysis.
That news also placed a concentrate on Jaguar, which was at the bottom of the list for the 2nd consecutive year.
It all seemed so clear, unless one was also familiar with several studies done by J.D. Power & Associates, the market research hard.
Then one might say: “Wait a minute. I thought Jaguar had done well recently.”
And it had done well in one of those studies. The J.D. Power two thousand twelve Initial Quality Investigate put Jaguar in the No. Two spot (tied with Porsche) just behind the first-place Lexus.
If that seems puzzling in light of the Consumer Reports probe, it can also seem strange that Jaguar was 28th out of thirty two brands in a different J.D. Power investigate, the two thousand twelve Vehicle Dependability Probe.
Lest anyone think that Jaguar is a fluke, consider Toyota’s youth brand, Scion. Its results were the opposite of the Jaguar results: Scion was ranked very first in Consumer Reports’ reliability survey but was 26th in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Investigate.
The differences are due to the fact that each survey looks at different factors, according to information from officials at the two companies. The studies ask different questions and vary in whether they include fresh models, redesigned models or old models.
Monday’s Consumer Reports explore predicts the reliability of two thousand thirteen vehicles – those that are in the dealerships right now.
“What we are looking at is, all of the vehicles that are on sale now and predicting the reliability of those vehicles,” said Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports. “We want to tell you what cars are reliable now if you went out and bought a car today.”
It shows how well fresh cars that are on sale will hold up based on the most latest three model years of data, provided the model has not been redesigned for 2013.
J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Probe is a snapshot taken at a different period of time than Consumer Reports’ examine. And the J.D. Power examine looks at initial quality, not dependability.
The Initial Quality Probe looks at problems owners have with their fresh vehicles in the very first ninety days of ownership. It broadly defines problems as things that have “caused a accomplish breakdown or malfunction, or where controls or features may work as designed, but are difficult to use or understand.”
It gives equal weight to problems that are defects, which can be immobilized, and elements that are working as intended, yet rankle owners; the latter cannot be motionless instantly, if ever.
The Consumer Reports survey asks respondents whether they have had any problems with their cars “in the past twelve months that you considered serious because of cost, failure, safety or downtime.”
J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Investigate, meantime, measures problems experienced by the original owners of three-year-old vehicles. It can be valuable to consumers in the market for a used car. The two thousand twelve dependability probe looks at problems with two thousand nine vehicles that their original owners had with those vehicles in the previous twelve months.
In that regard alone, the J.D. Power dependability investigate is different from the Consumer Reports predicted-reliability explore. The J.D. Power investigate looks at one model year over a three-year period, while the Consumer Reports survey looks at three model years — in the case of a two thousand thirteen model, for example, Consumer Reports looks at the 2012, two thousand eleven and two thousand ten model years.
As for the J.D. Power studies of initial quality and vehicle dependability, “we see a strong correlation inbetween how a model performs in I.Q.S. and how they perform in V.D.S.,” said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive research at J.D. Power & Associates. Those that perform well coming out of the gate are more likely to sustain that quality and dependability over those next three years than those that begin with poor initial quality, he said.
The key in comparing these two J.D. Power studies is to look at different years. A consumer would have to compare the two thousand twelve Vehicle Dependability Explore to the two thousand nine Initial Quality Examine to see how the two thousand nine models held up over three years.
While there can be differences inbetween the Consumer Reports and J.D. Power studies, there can be similarities as well. Ford is an example.
The Ford brand fell last year and this year in the Consumer Reports reliability investigate. This year it is 27th out of twenty eight brands. It also fell in the J.D. Power initial quality probe to 27th out of thirty four brands.
According to past and current interviews with researchers at both companies, Ford fell in both surveys for the same reasons: problems with the MyFord/MyLincoln Touch control system and the rough-shifting PowerShift automatic transmission.
To see how the two thousand twelve Ford models fare in the J.D. Power vehicle dependability probe, we will have to wait until the two thousand fifteen examine comes out.
As for consumers attempting to figure out how to use this sometimes conflicting, sometimes similar information, the comforting ideal would be to find a brand or model that does well in each of the studies, albeit that might be a challenge.