J. D. Power has released the 2000 model study that shows North America's anal retentives what new vehicles to buy and in the process confirms the notion that all cars are coming with higher quality.
The California research firm's Initial Quality Study (IQS) reflects the experiences of more than 47,000 American (no Canadians were harmed in the making of this survey) purchasers and lessees as they considered 135 specific areas of their new vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership and noted Things Gone Wrong (TGW) per 100 cars.
As well as listing the three cars with the lowest scores in various new car and truck categories, the 2000 IQS survey also shows that quality levels have gone up for the second year in a row, which Power finds significant "despite record sales that have increased production demands."
According to this study, the overall industry average shows a five percent reduction in reported problems over last year's results -- the same percentage improvement shown in the 1999 study over the 1998 results.
The results are certainly a useful addition to the arsenal of information any potential buyer should collect before buying a new car, but the actual scoring is highly subjective and their credibility varies with the number of people who report on a vehicle, meaning the results for big volume vehicles tend to be more believeable than those of niche vehicles.
The ongoing news is that every car company in the world has greatly reduced the number of TGW in their vehicles to the point where the fourth or even the fourteenth ranked car is right on its tale.