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Business Title: Ford Plunges to 23rd in J.D. Power Auto-Quality Survey as Toyota Rebounds June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., plagued by malfunctions of dashboard touch-screens, saw its namesake brand fall to 23rd from fifth in J.D. Power & Associates new-car quality survey, while Toyota Motor Corp.’s jumped to the Top 10. Toyota ranked seventh after its lowest-ever 21st ranking last year. Honda Motor Co.’s top-selling line finished second overall, replacing Ford as the top mainstream brand in the Westlake Village, California-based market-research firm’s Initial Quality Study, which measures consumer complaints in the first 90 days of vehicle ownership. Toyota’s Lexus luxury make topped the survey, up from fourth last year. Problems with new audio, entertainment and navigation systems rose 18 percent this year and boosted reports of defects on new and redesigned models, J.D. Power said in a statement. Defects on those new entries rose 10 percent this year, after declining the three previous years, J.D. Power said. “Ford’s decline in the study is primarily driven by consumers reporting both usability problems and actual functionality problems with the MyFordTouch system,” David Sargent, J.D. Power vice president for global vehicle research, said in an interview. “Some consumers are saying the system is, let’s be kind here, more complex than they would like.” Acura, Honda’s luxury line, was ranked third, followed by Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, Mazda Motor Corp.’s namesake brand, the market-research firm said. Porsche AG’s brand fell from first overall to sixth. Ford’s MyTouch Problems Ford said this week it’s repairing problems with its MyFordTouch system, including the screens blanking out and rebooting. Consumer Reports magazine this month called Ford’s system “complicated and distracting” and ranked the Explorer sport-utility 17th out of 19 models in part due to MyFordTouch. “We’re largely back on track on some of these early issues,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, said June 21. Ford’s quality performance in North America this year will be “mixed,” falling short of a goal to improve, he said. Jeffrey Knollmiller, 54, who owns a 2011 Ford Explorer, said his problems with MyFordTouch and the Sync voice-activated entertainment and phone system haven’t been resolved. “The Sync/My Ford Touch system in my vehicle continues to malfunction and exhibit erratic behavior to this day,” Knollmiller, of Redwood City, California, said in an e-mail. This “is not only a frustration and a violation of the promises made in Ford’s promotions and advertising, but a safety issue when I have to glance over at the Sync/My Ford Touch screen when something goes awry.” Ford Slides Ford models had 116 problems per 100 vehicles in the J.D. Power survey, ranking it behind 12 other below-average brands. Last year, Ford ranked fifth with 93 problems per 100 vehicles. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s Lincoln luxury models, which also have new touch screens, fell from eighth to 17th and went from above average to below. “If they’re going to add this system to new vehicles, that will present a bigger challenge to them,” Sargent said. “The underlying quality of the vehicles themselves is still very good, but it’s overlaid with this technology problem that’s been introduced that’s had a negative effect that Ford needs to fix as quickly as possible. It’s a major issue for them.” Toyota last year fell to 21st place from sixth in the J.D. Power new-car rankings after the automaker recalled more than 8 million cars worldwide for defects associated with unintended acceleration. This year, consumers reported 101 problems per 100 vehicles on Toyota models, an improvement from 117 last year. Toyota’s Rebound Toyota’s drop last year “was largely driven by consumers being concerned that they might have a problem on their vehicle and it was unique to the 2010 model year,” Sargent said. “People who buy a 2011 Toyota typically haven’t had the vehicle recalled and life has returned to normal for Toyota.” Lexus had just 73 problems per 100 vehicles and had four models rank highest in their vehicle category. The Lexus LS sedan had the fewest defects of any model, with 54 problems per 100 cars. Lexus factories in Canada and Japan received J.D. Power’s highest award for plant quality. Honda’s jump to second, its highest ranking ever, from sixth last year was helped by having seven models rated best in their vehicle category, J.D. Power said. Tokyo-based Honda’s previous highest ranking was third in 1997, Sargent said. “Honda benefited from having mostly vehicles that carried over from the previous model year and there were no big new- model launches,” Sargent said. “It’s unusual for any brand to win seven awards, but they’ve just done a lot of hard work.” How GM Fared General Motors Co., which reorganized in bankruptcy in 2009, was the only U.S. automaker to have brands rank above average in this year’s survey. Detroit-based GM’s Cadillac luxury line ranked 9th, up from 13th last year, and the GMC truck brand moved up to 10th from 25th last year. GM’s mainstream Chevrolet brand ranked 14th, four places below the industry average and down one spot from last year. The Chevy Tahoe was ranked best in the large crossover/SUV category, while the HHR won the compact multi-purpose vehicle segment. GM’s Buick brand fell to 20th place from 18th last year. “We’re making solid progress and expect future studies to reflect this improvement,” Terry Woychowski, GM’s vice president of global quality, said in an e-mailed statement. Chrysler Group LLC’s namesake brand rose to 16th place, from 23rd last year. Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler’s Ram truck brand fell to 22nd from 11th last year and its Jeep brand rose to 25th from 27th. Chrysler’s Dodge brand ranked last among 32 brands in this year’s survey, with 137 problems per 100 vehicles. Last year, Dodge ranked 28th out of 33 brands. Dodge’s Problem “Dodge’s main problem is some of the older vehicles, like the Nitro and Caliber, are holding them back, whereas their new vehicles like the Durango are doing very well,” Sargent said. “Dodge is one to watch. I doubt they’ll be on the bottom for long.” Doug Betts, Chrysler’s senior vice president of quality, said in an e-mailed statement his company has improved reliability based on its internal warranty information and it “has more work to do.” Nissan Motor Co.’s namesake brand fell to 24th place in this year’s survey, from 15th last year. The Yokohama, Japan- based company’s Infiniti luxury line ranked eighth, up one place from last year. Hyundai Slips Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, fell to 11th place, just below the industry average, from an above- average seventh place last year. Its affiliate, Kia Motors Corp., rose to 19th place from 26th place last year. J.D. Power said its study was based on surveys of about 73,000 purchasers of 2011 model-year vehicles and asking them 228 questions about their first 90 days of ownership. The study was conducted between February and May this year. J.D. Power is a unit of McGraw Hill Cos. Besides the Lexus factories, J.D. Power also cited plants producing Honda, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche AG models for quality awards. No U.S. automaker received a quality citation for a factory from J.D. Power. Last year, Ford’s Mexican plant that builds the Fusion and Lincoln MKZ sedans received a quality award.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
I hate to think that Ford is suffering from this kind of problems because Ford is known for its quality autos.
From what I've read people are confused by the new touch screen technology built into new Ford cars. They're used to the way things work with iPads and iPhones and find the Ford way difficult to navigate. Having a Ford truck with Microsoft's iSync I have to say that updating the software is a royal pain in the ass. Other than that the truck is fine.
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