New Car Quality Takes A Hit Due To Technology

[Purveyor]

(06-23) 10:45 PDT DETROIT, (AP) --

Owners of cars that were new or redesigned for the 2011 model year are reporting more quality problems, partly because of glitches with the navigation screens, voice-activated systems and other technology packed into their dashboards.

J.D. Power and Associates released its annual survey of new vehicle quality Thursday. Lexus, Honda and Acura were the top performers. Dodge was the worst-performing brand.

The survey questioned 78,000 people about the problems they had with 2011 model-year vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership. Owners reported an average of 107 problems per 100 vehicles. That jumped to 122 problems for cars that were new or redesigned in 2011, up 10 percent from 2010 model-year cars and trucks. J.D. Power said new technology was partly to blame.

"Clearly, consumers are interested in having new technology in their vehicles, but automakers must ensure that the technology is ready for prime time," David Sargent, J.D. Power's vice president of global research said in a statement. "There is an understandable desire to bring these technologies to market quickly, but automakers must be careful to walk before they run."

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/23/national/a104540D58.DTL

[tabasco]

1. When are these dumbass car makers going to realize

we just want a machine that goes from point A to point B, reliably and efficiently for many years?

Stupid assholes think the bells and whistles are more important than the drivetrain and the working parts of the car.

[Romulox]

2. Technology content provide the margin that make many small cars profitable.

That's what's going on here.

[JBoy]

5. Also creates an artificial acceleration of obsolescence.

Get people to trade in their perfectly good car because it doesn't have the latest gadget.

Good thing I don't give a shit that my 2001 Accord doesn't have an MP3 player.

[DainBramaged]

3. So we had a short in a '63 Corvette recently that was draining the battery

turns out the original clock was draining the battery way too much so we disconnected it and voila, no more short.

I love 60's technology.

[Dappleganger]

4. Thanks, I'll stick with the Tardis .