Cars are an ultimate luxury for all of us as they help us cover distances of great magnitudes in a short span of time. They are the real companions and their best use can sooth our lives in the most prolific manner. The mainstream factors which make us fall in love with our cars include their comfort, class, speed and last but not the least their dependability. The cars which are good with all other attributes but are not dependable cannot be termed as the ideal ones. The dependability of the car itself relies on multiple factors. The cars should be technically modern, strongly built, have an advanced braking system with other safety features and less prone to damage to be categorized as dependable cars. A recent study shows that Lexus, Buick and Porsche are three of the most dependable cars, as these cars observed the least number of complaints from their owners in recent times.
Top 5 Most Dependable Cars
The study compiled by a Consulting Firm J.D. Power revealed that Lexus, Porsche and Buick came out as the winners on the basis of their dependability for the car owners. These car companies faced a minimum number of complaints in a specific span of time and that eventually led to them being top in the ranks for dependability. Toyota and GMC were respectively 4th and 5th in this ranking and were also considerably dependable.
The Less Dependable Cars
There were big names on the list of cars which were deemed less dependable by the car owners. The least dependable cars coming out from this study were Ford, Land Rover, Dodge, Smart and Jeep. These were categorized as the least dependable cars as they proved to be the most problematic cars for their users. The cars being less dependable did not mean they had any major functionality error but it was just the escalated quantity of minor and medium scale issues raised with such cars that made them less dependable in the list.
The Scope of the Study by J.D. Power
The Study conducted by the JD Power is in its 27th year now. It has proved to be a highly multi-faceted and fact-full study that just not ranked the car brands generally but did it on diverse criterion and categories. The research conducted questionnaire from 33560 owners of different car owners of 2013 model vehicles for all the issues that they confronted in past one year. The overall ranking of the ‘Most Dependable and Less Dependable Cars’ was provided as a standard but there is a lot more that the research encompassed.
Following were the key findings for the car brands taking edge over others for different segments and categories:
Most Dependable Midsize car: Chevrolet Malibu came out as the winner for this segment.
Most Dependable Midsize SUV: Nissan Murano proved to be the best mid-size SUV in terms of its dependability.
Most Dependable Pickup Truck: Toyota Tundra became the leading Pickup Truck for its reliable nature.
Some other Random Results
The winner for most of the segment levels was the General Motors Co., who is the ruling company of Chevrolet, GMC and Buick. It won for 8 segment levels. Other than that the study found Buick Encore and Chevrolet Equinox as the top small size SUVs on the basis of their dependability. GMC Yukon is not surprisingly won the title of the most dependable Large SUV.
Factors Affecting Dependability of the Car
This Car Dependability judgment was purely based on the feedback of the car owners for different car brands that they had. The study looked at the performance areas which were bleak and highlighted them in this car dependability research.
Following were the key findings of the study:
Complaints about the Communication and Navigation Systems
These two were the bleakest areas where either the different car makers did not put enough attention or the standards were not up to the modern day communication and Navigations Systems, which is also called ACEN (Audio, Communication, Entertainment and Navigation) technology. Many car makers have moved towards advanced technologies in a try to stop the biggest communication brands like Apple and Samsung from taking their due share. But efforts have not yet been enough and car owners are not satisfied with the maintenance of standards. Some Brands have gone too far ahead in updating their communication and navigation standards from the earlier systems and the shift has been too big to digest for the car owners.
The study shows:
“The Brands in 2013 who had faced the heaviest of declines in their dependability ratings were Scion, Nissan and Cadillac and all had updated their infotainment systems to the advanced standards.”
“Fiat, Mini and Volvo who saw reasonable climb in their progress for dependability had just tweaked their infotainment systems.”
Miscellaneous Complaints by the Car Owners
The Car owners also seemed to complain about the Engine of the Cars and that came out to be the third biggest problem after the technology/communication problems. Few other problems were; poor functioning of the air conditioning systems, uncomfortable seats, too much of road noise and rusting.
How the J.D. Power Study Helps Car Brands and Car Owners
The above-mentioned facts show that the customers were not too happy by messing with the infotainment systems including the communication and navigation. What they needed was surety of the standardized navigation system inside cars and the ability of the sound systems to sync with the smartphones properly. The cars that had too much complicated sound systems were not accepted wholeheartedly as they were hard to understand for the users. Other than that the technical issues with the mechanics of the cars were also a concern that came out from car owners. In the light of these revelations, the car companies could now easily comprehend their areas of focus to try being more balanced in their car built and functionalities. The study is not only helpful for the car companies but for the car owners too as they can make up their mind on how to make best use of their money while buying their next car following the dependability ratings of all various cars.
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