AUTONEWS

Analysis by J.D. Power points out the most problematic cars for and those that cause the least headaches for owners

Year after year, US consulting firm J.D. Power produces a report to educate consumers about the reliability of new cars offered for sale in the US, focusing on the number and reasons for complaints reported by drivers after three years. of vehicle use. And its most recent study confirms what was already suspected: the more sophisticated the vehicles are, from a technological point of view, the more hassle and hassle they cause for those who drive them. This is the main conclusion, but it does not make it a general rule for Toyota Group vehicles, which stood out on a positive note. Lexus remains in the lead, soon followed by Toyota, which rose to 2nd place in the table, thus establishing itself as the most reliable brand among so-called generalist manufacturers. There are, however, brands considered luxury whose vehicles disappoint consumers and this is reflected in the lowest places in the reliability ranking.

Continuing to consider the brands that are equally marketed on this side of the Atlantic, it is impossible not to mention the poor score obtained by Audi (275), Land Rover (268) and Volkswagen (267), manufacturers whose construction quality is generally not put into question. cause, so the explanation for this poor performance in the J.D. Power reliability ranking could, in part, be rooted in infotainment, which has been a (publicly admitted) headache for the Volkswagen Group and which appears, in this research, as the main reason for complaints from customers.

After three years of use, it was found that the infotainment systems, in particular connectivity with the Android Auto and Apple Carplay systems, as well as voice recognition, constitute the main reason for “disagreement” between the owner and the your vehicle. To give you an idea, the “annoyances” related to infotainment accumulated more than twice as many as the second complaint.

The so-called driving assistance systems (ADAS) are another point that could leave drivers on the verge of a nervous breakdown, even though they are intended to make their task easier and increase safety. The audible warnings and the vibration in the steering wheel whenever the vehicle leaves the lines that delimit the road it is traveling on are a “annoyance” for some and, no matter how much time passes, there are those who do not adapt to the warnings and consider them a nuisance. . “It would be expected that, after three years, owners would already be used to ADAS alerts. But that's not the case,” said J.D. Power's senior director of automotive benchmarking, Frank Hanley.

Another conclusion is that 100% electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) are the target of more complaints than others, with hybrid and gasoline models satisfying their drivers more. “BEVs are the most problematic (256 PP100), followed by PHEVs (216 PP100). Hybrid (191 PP100) and gasoline (187 PP100) vehicles show significantly better results”, highlights J.D. Power.

It is known that the choice of tires is decisive for the performance of BEVs, constituting in itself an element that favors or penalizes autonomy. It turns out that the responses collected also revealed that drivers of battery-powered models are forced to change tires more often than their counterparts who drive combustion models. J.D. Power noted that “tires are a sore point for BEVs, with 39% of owners saying they have replaced their tires in the last 12 months – 19 percentage points more than owners of gasoline-powered vehicles.”

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