Quality Award Flies in the Face of J. D. Powers Vehicle Dependability Study
Car of the Year prizes and quality survey awards such as J. D. Powers Initial Quality Study (IQS) and Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) can be confusing to say the least. Some survey companies might award a very high rating to one brand while another may leave the same brand near the bottom of its list.
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| Rankings between different quality studies can be like a yo-yo, with some brands going from the top of the heap to the bottom depending on who is asking the survey questions and what questions are asked. (Photo: Ford Motor Company) |
Why the discrepancies? It usually has something to do with how the information was gathered, and particularly what questions the surveyors asked. Sometimes, however, the study has little to do with the cars themselves and more to do with the manufacturing processes behind them.
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| Ford Premier Automotive Group's Jaguar and Land Rover brands recently became the first two marques to be recognized for excellence in quality by receiving an ISO/TS16949:2002 certification from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA). (Photo: Ford Motor Company) |
To Ford's Premier Automotive Group's (PAG) credit, its Jaguar and Land Rover brands just recently became the first two marques to be recognized for excellence in quality by receiving an ISO/TS16949:2002 certification from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) in the U.K. (visit at www.vca.gov.uk/).
This is where it's important to include that VCA's major customers only include Aston Martin (Ford), BMW (UK), Citroen (UK), Ford, Honda, Jaguar (Ford), Land Rover (Ford), MG, Nissan, Peugeot (UK), Rover, Toyota (UK) and Volvo (Ford), plus automotive supplier companies such as Visteon. While an enviable list there are many automakers not represented.