Whether you’re a hard-core car enthusiast or you think of your vehicle as an appliance, you don’t want automotive problems that demand dealership visits or generate roadside delays. One of the key sources of information about automotive quality is the J.D. Power and Associates U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS), which the company has been conducting since 1987. But how, exactly, is quality measured in this survey?
You begin to wonder when you compare the 2011 IQS results with those from 2010 [see below]. For example, GMC, Mazda, and Toyota each moved up 14 or 15 positions on the chart, while Ford plummeted 18 places—from fifth to 23rd. We haven’t noticed a huge degradation in Ford quality during the past year, so what’s going on?
Read Article