Car Survey Shows Fewer Complaints But More With Personal Electronics

Carmakers are doing a better job than ever eliminating nagging problems like wind noise, paint chips, and balky engines. Now the auto industry has to figure out how to make similar improvements in technologies aimed at users, like hands-free audio and navigation systems.

The latest automotive quality survey released on June 20 by the research firm J. D. Power & Associates showed that consumers were reporting fewer overall problems with new vehicles. The luxury brands Lexus, Jaguar, and Porsche topped the rankings, while General Motors’ Cadillac and GMC divisions were the best performers among the Detroit brands.

Yet the high quality scores posted by most automakers were tempered by a growing number of complaints about in-car technologies intended to allow users to issue voice commands, update their Facebook status, look up directions, or check the weather forecast. As consumers grow accustomed to ever-more sophisticated cellphones and computers, they are demanding the same level of performance from similar equipment in their cars and trucks, analysts say.

"Almost no manufacturer has solved that riddle yet," said David Sargent, Head of Auto Research for J. D. Power. "It’s a collective learning experience that the industry is going through." Sargent presented the results of his firm’s 2012 survey of initial auto quality at a meeting of the Automotive Press Association. The study evaluates problems that consumers experience during the first ninety days of ownership. Most of the findings were good news for car buyers and manufacturers.

This year’s report shows that, on average, consumers report 102 problems per one hundred vehicles. That was a five percent improvement over last year and the strongest year-over-year gain since 2009, when many car companies were struggling with financial problems that prompted cutbacks in product development. As in past years, Japanese automakers generally fared better than American car companies. The lowest-rated major brand was the German company Volkswagen.

All auto companies are finding that consumers are increasingly touchy about the performance of their in-car technology. Problems with electronic equipment increased eight percent from last year and now represent the single biggest area of dissatisfaction with new models. While complaints in other categories have decreased twenty-four percent since 2006, problems with electronics have grown forty-five percent in the same time period.

Some car dealers and iPhone users are enthusiastic about having Siri, Apple's voice-command software introduced last year on the iPhone 4S, in vehicles. "I wish we had the product today," said Scott Sharrow, General Manager of Rohrich Chevrolet in Pittsburgh, PA citing customer demand for Siri.

On June 11, Apple said that it was working with eight automakers -- Audi AG, BMW AG, Chrysler Group, General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota Motor Corp. -- to include in-vehicle Siri capabilities. Honda and GM have confirmed that they plan to include Siri in their vehicles.

The feature, called Eyes Free, will enable drivers to make phone calls, send text messages, get directions, play music and use other Siri functions by speaking. Automakers clearly are under pressure to make such hands-free systems work correctly.

Most of the complaints about technology came from younger consumers, Sargent said. That is because car buyers who are thirty-five and younger have the greatest expectations for new electronic systems and use them the most.

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