Every year at the beginning of February there is nervousness in the US branches of the automobile manufacturers. Then the renowned analysis house J.D. Power’s “Vehicle Dependability Study”. The analysis provides indications of how error-prone current models from different brands are in the USA are and how often they have to go to the workshop. If you do poorly here, you risk losing favor with customers.
The US sales representatives of the German car manufacturers should be correspondingly alarmed these days. Because the latest edition of the study gives almost all local brands a weak testimonial. If you bracket Mini as bmwsubsidiary in 9th place, the Munich-based brand was the only German brand to do better than the industry average in 15th place.
Porsche (20th), Volkswagen (24th), Mercedes-Benz (27th) and Audi (29.), on the other hand, ended up in lower midfield or at the end of the tableau. Only Lincoln and Land Rover came off worse than the Ingolstadt company. At the top of the ranking this year were Lexus, Genesis and Kia. The authors rated the Toyota C-HR and the Lexus RX as the most reliable models.
Leader Lexus, Audi in 29th place
For his study, J.D. Power over 30,000 vehicle owners how many problems they had with their cars after three years. The current analysis therefore relates to vehicles built in 2020. Calculated per 100 vehicles, 252 problems occurred at Audi, the last of the German manufacturers. At frontrunner Lexus there were only 133.
A special position in the ranking Tesla a. The brand was part of the analysis for the first time this year, performing moderately with 242 problems per 100 cars. However, since Tesla did not grant the study authors access to owner data in some states, the result is less meaningful than for the other makes.
According to the authors, more errors occurred at Audi than at other German brands last year. At that time, the VW subsidiary was at least enough for 25th place. Porsche was the German manufacturer with the best rating in 2022 with 7th place.
Problem area software and infotainment
So have the local corporations forgotten how to build cars? According to the study, the reasons for the poor performance are less to be found in classic sheet metal bending and more in the software. The most error-prone of all brands are the infotainment systems, according to the paper. Almost half of all respondents reported problems with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, voice recognition, Bluetooth connectivity and inaccurate navigation maps.
Critics complain about the study that a comparison between premium and volume brands is not very meaningful, especially when it comes to infotainment. In higher-quality models, more complex technology is usually installed, which also increases the susceptibility to errors. J.D. Power expert Frank Hanley admits: “It is typical of the automotive industry to introduce concepts and functions first in premium vehicles.” However, premium brands usually charge a hefty surcharge for special equipment. In return, customers should expect flawless functions.
For Volkswagen, Mercedes and Co., the ranking comes at the wrong time. You have chosen the USA as a potential growth market. It is not for nothing that Mercedes boss Ola Källenius (53) is starting to set up his own in North America Fast charging network for electric cars. Volkswagen wants to increase its local market share from currently around four percent to around ten percent by 2030. To this end, the group is primarily investing in new electric models for the market. In Wolfsburg and Herndon, the seat of Volkswagen’s US headquarters, they should equally hope that those vehicles will be less bitchy than the current model range.