TrueDelta: Dark Lord Lucas [Still] Bedevils Jag
TrueDelta has released the August results of its Vehicle Reliability Survey. Among the models surveyed: the 2009 Nissan Murano, 2009 Jaguar XF, 2008 smart fortwo (no caps) and 2008 Saturn ASTRA (all caps). The Murano follows the Rogue in requiring fewer repairs in its first few months than Nissan's previous redesigns. The smart requires more repairs than the average car, but not too many more. That would be the Jaguar. Though the sample size for the new XF was small, the reported repair rate was nearly four times the average of a nearly new car. Most commonly reported… wait for it… electrical glitches. Finally, the most reliable of the three European-sourced models, with a require rate about half the average, comes from… GM. GM designs often require far fewer repairs in their second year of production. Following what used to be a common practice with new Japanese designs, the ASTRA also spent its first year overseas. So it comes to the U.S. nearly glitch-free. Full results at the link below.
Michael Karesh lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, with his wife and three children. In 2003 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. While in Chicago he worked at the National Opinion Research Center, a leader in the field of survey research. For his doctoral thesis, he spent a year-and-a-half inside an automaker studying how and how well it understood consumers when developing new products. While pursuing the degree he taught consumer behavior and product development at Oakland University. Since 1999, he has contributed auto reviews to Epinions, where he is currently one of two people in charge of the autos section. Since earning the degree he has continued to care for his children (school, gymnastics, tae-kwan-do...) and write reviews for Epinions and, more recently, The Truth About Cars while developing TrueDelta, a vehicle reliability and price comparison site.
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Verbal: the V6 models wind up sucking catalytic converter material back into the engine and the motor throws a rod or loses compression. Gutting the pup cats or going with aftermarket headers is the "fix". Fun.
Michael, what was the design flaw? I read at the time ford spent a BILLION dollars designing the contour/mercury mistake. Thats a lot of scratch for a car design in the 90's. Especially when it hit the market and they realized it had no rear seat roon. Oops...
Sajeev Mehta : the V6 models wind up sucking catalytic converter material back into the engine and the motor throws a rod or loses compression. Fascinating. There's actually a Contour design flaw of which I was unaware. So this is in addition to the car's early wheel bearing failures, early alternator failures, early starter motor failures, chronic Check Engine light illumination, etc. etc. etc.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. They're getting their fingerprints all over it!