Amid struggling winter sales, carmakers are facing some more bad news: The reliability of used vehicles is down for the first time in 16 years.
Rating the reliability of 3-year-old vehicles, J.D. Power's annual Vehicle Dependability Study was released Thursday to reveal that late-model used cars had the lowest dependability ranking since 1998, USA TODAY reported.
According to the study, which is a key influencer on the used car market, owners of 2011 vehicles reported a 6 percent higher rate of problems compared with last year.
The numbers put a halt to improving dependability scores, which had been rising for the industry since 1998, Power said.
USA TODAY noted that the industry's sales tactic of touting the rising quality of vehicles will ring false if dependability scores keep falling.
Chevrolet and Volkswagen are two examples of carmakers that used rising quality for a sales pitch. The former has a tagline saying that Chevrolet trucks are the "longest-lasting, most-dependable," while VW claimed to have the most vehicles in service and boasted 100,000 and 200,000 miles in a Super Bowl ad.
"Such claims will begin to seem hollow if the latest Power VDS is not a hiccup, but the start of annually declining dependability--and that seems quite possible," USA TODAY said.
Automakers are in big trouble if "improvements" to models actually cause them to have more problems, but the study seems to show exactly that.
"Some of the changes that automakers implemented for the 2011 model year have led to a noticeable increase in problems reported," said David Sargent, Power's global automotive vice president, as quoted by USA TODAY.
New engines and transmissions apparently spelled trouble, contributing about six out of seven additional issues per 100 vehicles, according to the study.
Four-cylinder engines and the shift toward small engines both made for more issues, Power said. As carmakers strive to improve fuel economy, they meet growing federal regulations but curb drivers with "engine hesitation, rough transmission shifts and lack of power," according to Power.
Here are the study results:
Brand scores (problems per 100 vehicles for 2011 models; lower is better):
Segment winners (top three models in each category, starting with best):
Subcompact car
Compact car
Premium compact car
Sporty compact car
Midsize car
Sporty midsize car
Premium midsize car
Large car
Premium large car
Subcompact crossover SUV
Compact crossover SUV
Premium compact crossover SUV
Midsize crossover SUV
Premium midsize crossover SUV
Large SUV
Premium large SUV
Compact multi-purpose vehicle
Midsize pickup
Minivan
Full-size pickup, standard duty
Full-size pickup, heavy duty
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