Fiat Chrysler Tops Annual 'Total Quality' Survey

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles earned the top spot overall in an annual survey of new car quality.

Strategic Vision, a San Diego-based research firm, ranked FCA No. 1 for the first time since the company began measuring customer satisfaction in 1995. Last year, Kia earned top honors.

FCA had six cars that topped their respective segments, including the Fiat 500 and 500e; Dodge Charger, Challenger and Durango; and, the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

While FCA took the top spot this year, General Motors and Volkswagen followed closely behind, tying for second place, one point behind FCA on a 1,000-point scale.

According to Strategic Vision, 46,000 consumer responses were used for the study, which rated consumer satisfaction along with problems in each vehicle. The Mini Cooper Roadster earned the highest score among new cars. Land Rover was tops among luxury automakers, Ram was first among non-luxury automakers.

BMW had six segment winners including the i3, 3-Series Wagon, X4 and X5; Mini Cooper Roadster and Countryman.

According to the Detroit News, the Total Quality Index study comes out less than a week before the annual J.D. Power Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout survey that last year ranked all FCA brands below industry average.

Of course, TTAC has never really been a big fan of the report anyway.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Hummer Hummer on Jul 17, 2015

    The general public is afraid to leave a known comfort zone, which Toyota and Honda offer. Unfortunately the comfort zones usually mean boring to no end. Someone that's never bought FCA, that's heard so much bad about them, buys a new SRT, has reliability no worse than the Toyota, has fun to no end, and gets Gas mileage basically little different, is going to be happy. In that aspect this really isn't a surprise. There's more to cars than reliability, else VW wouldn't be where it is in the ROW. The same goes for the Wrangler, CR and other (uninformed) "auto" reviewers try to compare a Wrangler to a RAV4 and it does poorly. That is stupid to no end. Obviously the Wrangler is a great vehicle and needs little to any change as is, the fact is, Wrangler buyers don't want CUVs.

  • SavageATL SavageATL on Jul 17, 2015

    Y'all, REALLY? Do y'all REALLY think that Chrysler cars (I don't count Fiats as cars) are the WORST quality on the market? Anecdotal evidence etc, but everyone I know with a Chrysler minivan hit well over 250000 miles before they died. Yes, there were some issues along the way but unless you got the first few years of the Ultradrive they were great cars. Not like Odysseys haven't had transmission problems. If you avoided the 2.7 MITSUBISHI v6 the Cirrus/Stratus/Intrepids were pretty decent. There are a LOT of the 98-07 generation minivans driving around, I see some of the original LH cars, and the LXs have hit every rung on the buy here pay here lot tree and are still running in large numbers. My Caravan (anecdotal evidence) has the 2.4 and 208000 trouble free miles. One door lock, and an HVAC resistor, and maintenance, and that's IT. I recommended a friend buy a 2011 Charger, he has 94000 trouble free miles. I don't really know where Chrysler got the reputation for Krap Kars, but even the K cars, while not sexy, were more durable than the GM morning sickness plagued cars of the '80's and Ford's Escorts and Tempazes. All the Chryslers we had were good, solid cars. I dunno if they're TOPS in quality, but as y'all said, that depends on what you mean by "Quality"

    • See 2 previous
    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Jul 17, 2015

      SavageATL - really? we had a 2001 Grand Caravan bought new in the spring of 2002. It was at the dealer at least 3 times a year. We got 1,300 for it on trade. I sold a rusty 15 year old dying F250 for 1,300 that same year. No thanks. If JD Power ,Consumer Reports, Vincentric et al say a product is crap I stay away. Learned that one the Grand Caravan way.

  • Hawox Hawox on Jul 18, 2015

    ahahahaha ahahahahahah ahahha that's a joke!

  • GeneralMalaise GeneralMalaise on Jul 19, 2015

    Recent purchases: 2013 MB E350 BlueTec... 21K miles now, too new to have issues... 2012 Abarth with 28K miles no issues... owned '07 350Z that I sold with 78K miles before buying Abarth, only issue was replacement of clutch master cylinder under warranty... 2004 Civic Si bought new, no issues sold it with 75K miles to buy Z... '01 Toyota Highlander w/225K miles, no issues, runs like new... Dodge Caravan, Plymouth Colt, 1st Gen Toyota Camry, 1st Gen Honda Accord, all no issues, trouble-free, many miles of service. Past vehicles bought new had trouble got rid of: Ford Windstar, Buick Turbo Regal (so soured, vowed to never purchase another GM product), Suzuki Samurai

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