There’s a lot of pressure on manufacturers today to provide products with the all the latest and greatest features.
But if companies aren’t careful, the rush to provide new bells and whistles can be a big-time quality trap.
That’s exactly the case in the automotive world right now, according to the 2014 J.D. Power & Associates annual Vehicle Dependability study.
Car manufacturers are working hard to provide better fuel economy in their vehicles - a coveted feature for many consumers.
However, it’s led to an uptick in problems with engines and transmissions, such as:
- engine hesitation
- rough transmission shifts, and
- lack of power.
Owners of 2011 model year cars and trucks reported 133 problems per 100 vehicles - a 6% percent increase from last year’s study.
It’s the first time since 1998 that J.D. Power has reported a decline in vehicle dependability.
Honda, Toyota and Subaru ranked the highest in dependability (among non-luxury brands).
The bottom of the barrel included:
- Hyundai
- Jeep
- Land Rover, and
- Dodge.
Customer is always right
Car manufacturers are still working out the kinks with new fuel economy technology, and it’s hard to blame them for some of the issues that have come up.
“There is almost inevitably a trade-off between designing and programming a vehicle for fuel economy and how well it drives,” says J.D. Power vice president David Sargent. “And consumers want both.”
So whether or not the reported issues are real quality problems is, unfortunately, beside the point, Sargent said.
Consumers are perceiving them as quality issues, and they’ll look elsewhere if they’re not satisfied.
The J.D. Power study revealed that just 42% of car owners will stay with the same brand after reporting three or more problems.
On the other hand, 56% of owners that reported no problems become loyal customers.
Lesson learned: While you want to provide customers with the newest features, product quality shouldn’t take a back seat.
There’s always pressure to keep up with competition and get new products out on the market.
But it’s best to slow it down a few notches and make sure you meet all of your quality and testing goals first.
