Consumer Reports Thumbs Nose at European Autos

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Quote »Consumer Reports thumbs nose at European autosReliability is No. 1 issue in low rankingsSunday, November 14, 2004By Don Hammonds, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe reliability of European cars is so bad that not a single one made Consumer Reports' "New Car Preview 2005" issue. In fact, 10 of the highly respected magazine's 11 lowest-rated sedans hailed from across the Atlantic, including high-priced Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and BMW brands.Germany's Volkswagen came in for particularly hard hits, with most of its products, including the Golf, Jetta and New Beetle, receiving ratings that were far below average for reliability.Japanese brands, on the other hand, continued to rank at the top, with Toyota, Lexus and Scion dominating the listings. And American brands Buick Regal, which has been discontinued, and the non-supercharged version of the Pontiac Grand Prix won the annual publication's highest reliability ratings.The results are based on an annual Consumer Reports survey that relies on the voluntary participation of 810,000 car and truck owners. The data on products built between 1997 and 2004 is analyzed to predict the reliability of 2005 models.The problems with European cars mainly dealt with "electrical systems and power equipment," such as alternators, wiper motors, switches, wiring, power seats, windows, door locks and sunroofs, said David Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports."It can be anything that stops working and makes customers take the car into the dealers to get repaired," he said.Part of the problem, Champion said, is that Europeans don't really understand how important reliability is to American buyers.It's not so much major engine or powertrain items that leave drivers stranded on the side of the road that are the issue, but continual smaller problems that keep cropping up that force owners to take the car back to the dealer, Champion said."Time is money," he said. "You take it one month, and next month, it's something else, and then the month after that, too. You get to the point where you say, 'I will not buy that car ever again.' "A big reason why so many problems are occurring with European brands is the increasing complexity of the cars themselves, Champion said. They are loaded with features and gizmos, "and the more you have, the more likely the chance is that one of them will go wrong," he said. "It makes the car considerably more complicated to put together."Not surprisingly, European automakers dispute the Consumer Reports findings."Our own tracking shows we are making considerable year-to-year improvements in quality across all the model ranges," said Mercedes-Benz spokesman James M. Resnick. "This data is volunteered by Consumer Reports' readers; it is not verified. It does not correlate to our own data or that of other third-party surveys."Further, Resnick noted that the survey appears to be inconsistent with Consumer Reports own new car buying guide that earlier this year suggested Mercedes makes were improving across all model lines. He noted that issue rated the C-Class and S-Class models that did poorly in the new reliability rankings "very good" to "excellent."The best measure of reliability, Resnick said, is the 72 percent of the more than 2 million Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the United States since the 1950s that are still on the road.BMW officials were equally puzzled about the test results."We feel confident that the reliability of [the BMW 7 Series models that fared poorly] will be far better than what the predictor survey indicates," said BMW spokesman Dave Butchko.The 5 Series sedans, which also fared poorly, "are a little bit more difficult matter. These are brand new models," so the surveys only reflect six months of data, Butchko said.But Consumer Reports' Champion said the 5 Series had other issues, particularly with its multi-function iDrive system that controls navigation, radio, climate control and other functions. Sometimes, the display would just go out, he said. "You had no idea what radio station you were listening to because you couldn't see anything."Volkswagen's problems were similar to the other European makers, in that they often involved "little niggling bits and pieces going wrong all the time."Half of the sedans and small cars that earned Consumer Reports' highest reliability ratings were manufactured by Toyota and its Scion and Lexus divisions: the Lexus IS300, Toyota Prius, Scion xB and Toyota Corolla.Korean automaker Hyundai also won a spot on the most reliable cars list with the Sonata.The results of the Consumer Report survey largely match the findings of J.D. Power and Associates' initial quality survey for new car quality after 90 days of ownership and its vehicle durability survey done after three years of ownership. Those surveys also found that European models have higher than average problems reported by their owners.