How Important Is Vehicle Dependability to Buyers?
The last thing we need from our new car is to be left by the side of the road. And one of the big reasons for buying a new car, rather than used, is to lessen that possibility. But even among new cars, there are wide differences in dependability according to ratings published by different research companies.
Experts explain the primary benefits of buying a car with a higher reliability rating are lower repair costs and higher resale value.
Buyers seem aware of these benefits and admit that they are concerned with reliability when researching their upcoming vehicle purchase.
In a new survey conducted by BuyingAdvice.com, 90 percent of respondents said that dependability was "very" important in their buying decision.
57 percent of those polled also told us that they had excluded vehicles from their search because of poor dependability scores.
Dependability data has received considerable media attention in the last few decades, as it has often been seen as an area where imported vehicles often out-perform domestics. Also it has been viewed as a reason that domestic automaker's market share has eroded.
The best known reliability data comes from the annual surveys by J.D. Power and Associates which releases a number of results on dependability and initial quality.
But experts say that it is important to understand what the dependability statistics do and do not tell you about the reliability of a vehicle.
"The key to reading the dependability scores is understanding that they show past performance," says retired dealer Earnest Jordan.
"While they do offer a good guide to current performance, their information is usually based on buyer's experience over the last three years. You need to read them in conjunction with the model history to understand if the car you are looking at is actually the one they are talking about.
"While every year a manufacturer makes small changes to differentiate between years; at intervals there will be major redesigns. And while the model name may be retained, they are effectively talking about different cars, which lessens the importance of the reliability data" he said.
"Even with extensive testing on a redesign; nothing can reproduce the experience of having thousands of drivers taking the car out on the road. Often problems can show up in the early months of a new model that were not predicted prior to its launch. Check for a list of recalls, if the model you are looking at is less than three years old. If there have been recent recalls, it may be a sign of problems with the redesign that are not yet reflected in the dependability scores.
"Also many of the online sources only break down dependability by manufacturer rather than model. While the manufacturer's overall engineering performance is important, remember to check the history of the particular model you are interested in." Jordan points out that, "Every maker has strengths and weaknesses within their line."
Also, there is an increasing number of manufacturers sharing designs and effectively selling the same cars under different names. So, certain platforms that have been recognized for their reliability that are now used in various models may be something for buyers to research.
"Another big plus in choosing a car with a high dependability rating, is that they tend to depreciate slower because they are more desirable in the used car market," says Jordan.
The buyers who took part in our survey agreed with this conclusion. 89 percent of those surveyed said that they believed that a high reliability rating resulted in a slower depreciation rate. The poll was taken among 2055 users of the BuyingAdvice.com web site.
Jordan says it is also important to remember that all the dependability data is based on averages.
He explains that, "Any car company can make a bad car. All the reliability data shows is that some make fewer than others. If you get one of the bad ones, it doesn't matter to you what the average is. Also, every manufacturer has seen a dramatic improvement in quality over the last few decades. The rankings show how they relate to each other. But they don't really show the general trend, which is for everyone's standards to improve".
Published on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - Email to a friend
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