DETROIT – Consumer Reports, the magazine that ranks everything from coffee grinders to cars, says Chrysler quality is up this year based on its annual automotive survey. The Chrysler 200, Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee are leading the way (the ’12 Chrysler 300 was too new to rank). General Motors’ quality was about steady, with some models up and others faltering, while Ford Motor Company’s quality has slipped. David Champion, senior director for the magazine’s Automotive Test Center, singled out Doug Betts at the Automotive Press Association luncheon Tuesday, for his efforts in improving Chrysler quality. Betts became Chrysler’s quality vice president in 2009, when Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep rankings were in both Consumer Reports’ and J.D. Power’s basement. Last September, Betts was named quality chief for Fiat.
Chrysler still has a way to go. In the magazine, Jeep is 13th of 28 brands for quality, the highest among domestics. The Wrangler Unlimited is its worst-ranked model and the Patriot (!) is its best. Chrysler is 15th, with Town & Country worst, 200 the best. Dodge, with Ram not separated out, is 21st, with the Ram 2500 turbodiesel worst and the Caliber best. Quality of design, as you’ll soon see, doesn’t directly translate to quality and reliability.
Ford’s new Explorer, Focus and Fiesta are most responsible for dragging down that brand, Champion said. The magazine bases its results on a survey of its 5 million subscribers. Nearly 1 million readers responded to the survey and were allowed to report on up to two cars, resulting in a total sample of 1.3 million vehicles. CR releases results on models for which it received at least 100 survey responses, so cars like the Porsche Boxster were not counted this year, although the Cayenne, which CR rated low, was counted.
Most troubling is that both Chevrolet and Ford hurt themselves with below-average scores on their compact cars. The new Honda Civic is a design disappointment, and the Toyota Corolla was a disappointment when it launched for the ’09 model year. Both are traditionally the two bestsellers in this important category, which snags a lot of first-time new car buyers. The new Volkswagen Jetta, which has become a top-five compact bestseller thanks to VW’s aggressive pricing and heavy advertising, should be vulnerable, too.
“The VW Jetta and Honda Civic do well” in quality/reliability scores, Champion told the APA, “even though we don’t like them, because they’re cheap and chintzy.”
The Cruze is Chevy’s bestselling car so far in 2011. Owners ranked it “significantly below average” Champion said, because of “a number of small issues, including electrical, and squeaks and rattles.”
Chevrolet ranked 17 overall among the 28 brands surveyed. Its “worst model” is the Silverado 2500 and its “best model” is the Volt, Consumer Reports’ December issue says, which serves as a kind of halo model for cars like the Cruze. The hope is that if the $42,000 Volt draws new buyers into Chevy showrooms, many of them will drive away in $20,000 Cruzes.
Ford “dropped significantly,” Champion said, dinging the Focus for its automated manual transmission and MyFordTouch, which in my opinion ranks works no better than the 2002 BMW 7 Series’ iDrive.
The Ford brand ranked 20th among the 28 brands, while Lincoln ranked 14th. CR says the “worst” Ford model is the AWD Edge, while “best” is the Fusion Hybrid.
Neither the Chevy Cruze nor the Ford Focus ranked anywhere near the top of an eight-car compact comparison Motor Trend conducted earlier this year, though both have the style and interior appointments to potentially take sales away from the compact leaders, independent from the supply problems the Japanese brands have suffered since the tragic March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
From 2008 to ’10, Ford had made great strides in quality while GM and Chrysler struggled with their financial problems. Ford’s obsession with electronic gizmos and “connectivity” and its automated manual transmission issues have started to reverse those gains. MyFordTouch suffers from being the equivalent of an in-car automated phone operator system. The dual-clutch PowerShift, the only “automatic” available in the Fiesta and Focus, suffers poor refinement. Word is that quality problems with the PowerShift have led to Focus and Fiesta supply problems at dealerships across the country.
The Cruze is Chevy’s first truly global model, and was on-sale in Europe more than a year ahead of its North American debut. There’s no excuse for quality problems. Champion noted that GM’s best-rated models are cars and trucks that have been on the market for a number of years. The RWD CTS is No. 25 Cadillac’s best model, for example, with its quality ranking rising since its ’08 introduction, though the Escalade is Cadillac’s worst.
No question, Cadillac, Buick and Lincoln also need to raise their games. CR’s nine top-ranked brands, from No. 1 Scion down to No. 9 Nissan all are Japanese. The Ford Focus has been in this spot before. When the 2000 model launched early in 1999, it quickly caught Toyota’s Corolla sales in the U.S. and was gaining on the bestselling compact, the Honda Civic. Then, too many factory recalls blunted the ’00 Focus’ rise. Both the Focus and the Chevy Cruze could be racing toward the top of the sales charts, if only they could claim a Honda/Toyota-like reputation for quality.
