Holden and Ford Last in New JD Powers' Aussie Survey

by Samir Syed

Published: February 25th, 2008

holden and ford last in new jd powers aussie survey

Another myth exploded. Hot off TTAC's Paul Niedermeyer's editorial shattering our high-octane illusions of a country content with big, RWD Australian-made sedans like the Falcon, The Age reports that Ford and Holden finished at the bottom of the first ever J.D. Powers customer satisfaction survey for Australia. A sample of Aussies with cars up to three years old were fed an "international standard questionnaire" and asked to rate their purchases on several factors, including performance and reliability. Scanning the top place finishers paints a familiar picture for many Americans: Mazda, Honda and Toyota. Holden spinmeister John Lindsay uses utterly generic understatement to diffuse any controversy, noting that "When you sell thousands of cars some people will have issues". Right up until they stop buying, John.

Samir Syed

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4 of 14 comments

Pch101 on Feb 25, 2008

I am going to guess that JD Power conducts a 3-year survey because their customers -- the automakers -- provide warranties of about that length. JD Power makes its money from the auto manufacturers, not from the rest of us.

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Sherman Lin on Feb 25, 2008

I understand that Pch but thats why even if the domestics match the imports on durability their sales will not improve. I mean how would I know? I know I keep my car more than 5 years. The only thing I have to go on is what I see with my own eyes and in my case my import brands don't break down.

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Pch101 on Feb 25, 2008
I understand that Pch but thats why even if the domestics match the imports on durability their sales will not improve. I mean how would I know? Consumer Reports' coverage goes back several years, not just three. I find that CR typically correlates to what you'll find in JD Power, their rankings tend to be quite similar. Between the two of them, you can get a pretty good idea of long-term reliability. And if a car is a poor performer by the third year, it's a fair bet that it isn't going to age gracefully.

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Brendino on Feb 25, 2008
L47_V8 : February 25th, 2008 at 11:25 am Impalas and old Tauruses are everywhere here. Just means they’re cheap used (and new!) buys and fleet-specials with half or more being dumped into rental car pools. Doesn’t mean people drool on them in the garage at night. I drooled over my Sable when I got it :) I'm just happy to have a car! Your point is valid. But I dunno. I mean, if I see someone peeling out, acting like an idiot to show off, they're in a ute. For the price of cars here, I see a lot of the top level trim. A lot of the classic cars I've seen down here are old Falcons. Obviously I can't definitively measure it but there seems to be a lot more pride in ownership for one of these than a Taurus or an Impala.

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