Automakers Made Big Quality Strides In ‘97 Models Japanese Vehicles Continue To Dominate List, But Gains Were Industrywide
Automakers dramatically improved the quality of their new cars and trucks in the 1997 model year, according to the latest initial quality survey of buyers by J.D. Power and Associates.
Once again, Japanese models dominated the list of the highest ranking cars and light trucks. But the market research firm said Wednesday there were major gains industrywide.
The firm surveyed 43,752 owners of 1997 vehicles after three months of ownership, asking them to detail defects and other problems with their new car or truck in 89 areas.
The average number of problems per 100 vehicles dropped to a record low of 86, down 22 percent from 110 for the 1996 model year - the largest drop since J.D. Power began the survey a decade ago.
Among cars, the average number of problems per 100 vehicles fell to 81 from 100; for trucks, it plummeted to 92 from 123. It was the first time that all three averages fell below 100, or less than one problem per vehicle.
“While there have been incremental improvements in vehicle quality over the past 10 years, the 1997 results reveal that the automobile industry is providing far superior quality than ever before,” said Stephen C. Goodall, president of J.D. Power in Agoura Hills, Calif.
The biggest gains were among some of the highest-volume cars. Typically, the top scores are posted by high-priced luxury cars that are produced in relatively low numbers.
“What we are now seeing is the ability of manufacturers to take what they have learned in producing high-quality, low-volume vehicles and apply these concepts to the production of high-volume vehicles,” said Chance Parker, the firm’s product research director.
J.D. Power also said the quality gap between cars and light trucks largely vanished in 1997 because of big gains in the new crop of pickups and midsize sport utility vehicles.
But significantly poorer scores still exist within other segments of the truck market, such as minivans and small and large sport utilities, Parker said.
Among the 33 top-ranking vehicles, 24 have Japanese nameplates and nine are Big Three products. Some of the Japanese models, such as the Honda Civic and Accord, are made in the United States. No European vehicles made the list.
xxxx How they scored Top models in J.D. Power and Associates’ survey of owners of 1997 cars, with number of problems per 100 vehicles: Compact Cars - Saturn SL (65) Entry Midsize Car - Nissan Altima (77) Premium Midsize Car - Honda Accord (51) Sporty Car - Acura Integra (60) Entry Luxury Car - Infiniti I30 (46) Premium Luxury Car - Lexus LS400 (36)