Filed under: Autoline on Autoblog
QUALITY PROBLEMS WITH QUALITY RATINGS

Pity the poor car buyer who wants to be a smart consumer and reads all the quality studies before going to the showroom. How do you know what to believe?

For example, Consumer Reports' Reliability Survey gives props to the Scion xD. But Strategic Vision's Total Quality Award gives props to the Scion xB. And J.D. Power puts Scion near the bottom of the list of its Vehicle Dependability Survey. Who do you believe?

The problem is that these studies all measure different aspects of quality. Unfortunately, the mass media doesn't have time to delve into these distinctions and so all we get is their sound-bite analysis. Their favorite is that the Detroit Three are lagging behind the "foreign automakers" in quality.

John McElroy is host of the TV program "Autoline Detroit" and daily web video "Autoline Daily". Every week he brings his unique insights as an auto industry insider to Autoblog readers.Continue reading Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy


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