Edit: While I'm still dubious about these metrics I was ranting about an entirely different company here. Sorry. A very similar report has been making the rounds recently from JD Power, probably part of a marketing campaign of some sort. The JD Power list is even more hilarious because it is book-ended by two brands: Dodge and Chrysler. Also it suggests Alfa Romeo for reliability. https://www.cars.com/articles/2023-j-d-power-initial-quality...
This is just "initial quality" which has always been a bullshit metric invented by JD Power to sound good in automaker advertising.
The way it works is for the first 90 days of ownership every problem that bothers the owner counts as one point. So expensive cars that cater to fussy people score poorly compared to cars bought by people who only care about reliability and getting from point a to point b and don't pay attention to their car. Also, there is no weighting to the issues.
So you might have a situation like:
CR: So what problems did you find in the first three months of owning this expensive luxury car?
Owner: The glovebox latch is too loud and the heated seats heat up from the back first instead of the front first like I prefer and the power mirrors adjust too quickly.
CR: Ok, that's three points.
CR: Next person, what problems did you have?
Owner: Well, the rear wheel fell off after about 50 miles and after I owned it a couple of months it burst into flame on the highway.
CR: I'll mark that as two points.
This is Consumer Reports, not JD Power, and they said they surveyed for issues in the first 12 months. It's about "new" cars after all so you can't go further back than that. They also weigh issues for their severity. Where are you seeing that their methodology is the same as JD Power?
> Every year CR asks its members about problems they’ve had with their vehicles in the previous 12 months. This year we gathered data on over 330,000 vehicles, from the 2000 to 2023 model years, with a few early-introduced 2024 model years.
> We study 20 trouble areas, from nuisances—such as squeaky brakes and broken interior trim—to major bummers, such as potentially expensive out-of-warranty engine, transmission, EV battery, and EV charging problems. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream model.
> We weigh the severity of each type of problem to create a predicted reliability score for each vehicle, from 1 to 100. We use that information to give reliability ratings for every major mainstream vehicle. (The reliability rating is then combined with data collected from our track testing, as well as our owner satisfaction survey results and safety data, to calculate each test vehicle’s Overall Score.)
> So expensive cars that cater to fussy people score poorly compared to cars bought by people who only care about reliability and getting from point a to point b and don't pay attention to their car.
That sounds believable, except that Lexus is at the top of the list, and they are definitely a "fussy people" brand. Meanwhile Chevrolet, Ford, and VW are near the bottom.
Yeah OP is confused. This is CR which is a completely separate company from JD Power. Only JD Power measures JD Power metrics and no one else really cares about them.
So? Are you saying that's wrong? Alfas are as reliable as the parts they are made of. One of the biggest weaknesses in many years in Alfas were the manual gearbox in the 159. It was from GM, not Alfa.
Is Alfa reliable? Depends. Compared to a Ford? Maybe, it depends. Compared to a Tesla? Yes, much much better.
They have KIA, Porsche, BMW and Mini in the top 10..hehehe....There are quite a few Youtube channels that are either Car sales guys or Mechanics that will tell you to stay away from all of them and if you buy them your stupid and deserve what's coming. Although I have seen some last a while, many are a horror story.
I really wouldn't turn to consumers reports for advice, Youtube is a better source for what to buy...
This is just "initial quality" which has always been a bullshit metric invented by JD Power to sound good in automaker advertising.
The way it works is for the first 90 days of ownership every problem that bothers the owner counts as one point. So expensive cars that cater to fussy people score poorly compared to cars bought by people who only care about reliability and getting from point a to point b and don't pay attention to their car. Also, there is no weighting to the issues.
So you might have a situation like: