J.D. Power does a variety of research studies. They measure initial
satisfaction three year satisfaction and long term durability among
other things. Initial Satisfaction tends to be a measure of dealership
schmoozing more than anything else. The U.S. guys used to get killed
on that, but they learned from the Japanese, and now many excel-- GM
dealers in particular. American carmakers always did fairly well in
long term durability, in spite of what you might hear. These days they
do even better. I believe that three of the top six brands in
durability were American in the last surveys.
In terms of people defending their brand, other studies show that
import buyers are much more likely to do that than are American car
buyers. It's PC to drive an import. It's uncool to drive an American
car. I used to write a column for the service industry. It appeared in
Hearst's Motor magazine, and it was called "Troubleshooter." The idea
was to help service people with problems they couldn't solve. I had
access to all the engineers and factory bulletins and tried to sort
things out for the guys in the field. Our audience was largely
domestic service people, but I got plenty of letters from import
mechanics as ell. I rarely got letters from consumers -- with two
notable exceptions. Honda and Peugeot. Honda owners were very
distraught about recurring head gasket problems on Civics. But they
always prefaced their complaint with praise for their car and a
profession of deep love. They were all sure that they're car was an
exception and all the other Hondas were problem free. Peugeot owners
had myriad problems, and once in a while one of them would search out
my phone number and call me. They were begging for help. Everything
went wrong with those cars. But, still, they loved them. Go figure.
Car research can be very misleading, because there's a lot going on.
But in the states, the intelligentsia drive imports. It's part of
their calling card. They won't be caught dead in an American made car.
Their prejudices are based on bullshit, but they're powerful.
Paul
On Jun 4, 2009, at 9:00 PM, William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "paul stenquist"
Subject: Re: Consumer Reports on "cool cameras"
He had it completely wrong. Consumer Reports recommends all
Toyotas and no GM cars. For the most part, they're apologists for
any car made outside the U.S. In my opinion J.D. Power is much
more accurate. I worked with them over they years, and they were
untouchable at any price. They gave very high grades to GM cars.
I guess the questions are:
What are their criteria? Is it initial owner impression or is it
long term reliability?
Are they testing the vehicles to failure or depending on consumer
feedback?
If it's consumer feedback, there is still a large contingent of
people with the "my great grand daddy drove a Ford, my grand daddy
drove a Ford, my daddy drove a Ford, and by gumm, I'm not about to
plunk my ass into the drivers seat of a Sake burner" attitude around
my neck of the woods, though it seems to be more of a half ton truck
driver's mental illness.
I had an uncle in Montana who wouldn't have a Japanese car on his
driveway. He'd fought them as a marine in WWII, and as far as he was
concerned, the war wasn't over, it's just the shooting that had ended.
He was pretty uncomfortable when I showed up on his doorstep driving
a BMW.
Probably if he hadn't been standing on his doorstep at the time it
would have been better for him.
Around here, there are a lot more old Toyotas still on the road than
old GMs Fords or Chryslers, so I'm not sure what they would be
apologizing for on Toyota's behalf. They seem to make a pretty long
lived automobile.
William Robb
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above
and follow the directions.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
