Audi dependability study

[Carl Payne]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Jason Eisenmenger wrote:

> http://www.jdpa.com/presspass/pr/images/2003050bfull.gif

How is this a dependability study?  It's J.D. Power & Associates' schedule
of reported complaints (in total) of cars within the CSI guidelines but
after the initial 14 days of ownership.  These complaints are everything
the owner wants the maker to pay to repair or modify.

You want a dependability study?  Start the clock the day AFTER the
warranty expires.  To make it correct, reduce the number by a factor
determined by the miles of the vehicle (so one complaint in 500K miles =
.2 complaints versus a car with one complaint in 100K).  Don't forget to
delta the total mileage of complaining cars and include the cars still on
the road NOT complaining, and divide all THAT by the number produced in
the first place and divide the MSRP by THAT.  A $80K car they made
80,000 of with $600 in complaints doesn't mean as much as a $20K car
they made 200,000 of with $300 in complaints.

These stupid marketing ploys are meaningless, bloody meaningless.  Who do
you think pays for them?  Not J.D. Power--they're the VENDOR in this case.
Some manufacturers (Lexus for one) actually incentivize owners to let THEM
submit the CSI cards.  At the last minute, they really want the owners to
be happy, so they do whatever to make the card aces.  Same with warranty
claims.  LOTS of dealerships write off WRO repairs to policy loss, or
simlpy don't document them (Chrysler in the '80s, notably).  Dealerships
get bonus donuts for having such great service, and the manufacturer gets
plausible deniability when reporting to JDP (or Edmunds or RL Polk or
whomever).

I've SEEN people at the Benz dealership, with their 2# seeing eye dogs and
rattle-can mascara.  Morons comlpaining about full ash trays, or the A/C
being too cold, or any of a myriad of other complaints separating them
from the Average Person the convenience is intended for.  And, those
people BITCH and whine.

Same skew to cars with higher production runs (Toyota, et al).  Granted,
Japanese cars (well, in the JDM) only have to last 48 months, but their
numbers are skewed because the product is cheaper, the buyers expect a
Lexus Corolla, and the owner is paying for seats torn by the rivets in
their blue jeans (seen it!).  These are people with a MISSION to slam
back and skunk the legal definition of "lemon."

First show me how many of those cars are still original-owned at 100K.
Then, show me how many complaints they have or repairs they did.  THAT'LL
begin a reliability study.  THIS is as useful as a cheese condom.

And no, I'm not bitter.  :-)



Carl

28:06:42:12