Car quality is suffering as automakers shift focus to technology

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: New vehicles are more technologically advanced than ever, which is great when everything works as it should. In the real world, tech adds more complexity to the equation which translates to more opportunities for failure and an overall lower perception of quality.

That's more or less the summary of J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS), which highlighted quality declines in eight out of nine key categories. Driving experience was the only category that didn't suffer a decline, remaining flat year over year.

J.D. Power's study tracks the number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), and noted a record 30 PP100 increase over the past two years (an 18 PP100 increase from 2021 to 2022 and a 12 PP100 jump from 2022 to 2023).

The consumer intelligence company said the continued decline of quality can be attributed to multiple factors including but not limited to greater use of technology in new cars and the repeated implementation of audio systems with known issues. The features, controls, and displays category and the infotainment category saw the largest year-over-year increase in problems at +3.2 PP100 and +2.3 PP100, respectively.

Specific complaints included wireless charging pad issues and problems with driver assistance features. Attempts to reinvent the wheel – that is, modernize basic features that have already been perfected – were problematic as well. For example, some owners reported issues with door handles and manufacturers' insistence on making them unnecessarily complex.

"The automotive industry is facing a wide range of quality problems, a phenomenon not seen in the 37-year history of the IQS," said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power. How each manufacturer chooses to move forward will be paramount to its future, Hanley added.

Dodge ranked at the top of J.D. Power's list with 140 problems per 100 vehicles followed closely by Ram with 141 PP100 and Alfa Romeo with 143 PP100. Buick and Chevrolet rounded out the top five with 162 PP100 and 166 PP100, respectively. The study average was 192 PP100 and for those curious, EV makers Tesla and Polestar checked in with 257 PP100 and 313 PP100, respectively.

Image credit: Infotainment by Brock Wegner, Dodge by Artishmie Robbins

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99183-new-car-quality-suffers-automakers-shift-focus-technology.html

 

[nnguy2]

Removing physical buttons and dials for touchscreen is the dumbest technology move ever.

 

[VitalyT]

Removing physical buttons and dials for touchscreen is the dumbest technology move ever.

Yep. What's even worse - they advocate strongly against use of mobile phones while driving, because of how dangerous it is, and next thing they do - let manufacturers install the same kind of distraction all over the car.

That's why I'm keeping my 2017 Audi A6 till wheels fall off, as the last sensible car that Audi made. Test-drove the updated 2018 one, with all-touchscreens, and hated every last bit of it, what a joke!

 

[lripplinger]

Look at all the plastic crap under the hood of modern cars. Then you add in all the complexity of the electrical systems, and that creates more problems. Also, the small 4 and even 3 cylinder engines now with turbos is questionable, and very unreliable at worst. They have made cars disposable. EV's are no better, look how they get bricked (take the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as a recent example). Plus, car makers are anti right to repair, and don't want you to fix your own cars. It used to be a matter of pride in the U.S. to fix your own car, and certainly at least have basics down; I.e. changing your own oil, etc.

 

[sreams]

Removing physical buttons and dials for touchscreen is the dumbest technology move ever.

To be fair... while the Tesla Model 3/Y might look, on the surface, like one of the worst offenders, nearly every important function can be adjusted using the physical scroll-wheels on the steering wheel. Wipers, temps, audio, etc. It actually works quite well at this point... although it didn't until OTA updates addressed it. Those vehicles that don't offer OTA updates probably won't fare as well.

 

[psycros]

I love the idea of back-up cameras, Bluetooth audio and in-dash maps. So my dream is to put that stuff into an '89 Chevy Cavalier.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

To be fair... while the Tesla Model 3/Y might look, on the surface, like one of the worst offenders, nearly every important function can be adjusted using the physical scroll-wheels on the steering wheel. Wipers, temps, audio, etc. It actually works quite well at this point... although it didn't until OTA updates addressed it. Those vehicles that don't offer OTA updates probably won't fare as well.

Steering wheel controls are a cheap cop out. They dont work well if you are, say, turning, and trying to control multiple functions is clunky at best.

Just put the buttons back. Everyone who tries the touchscreen eventually goes back to buttons for a reason.

Look at all the plastic crap under the hood of modern cars. Then you add in all the complexity of the electrical systems, and that creates more problems. Also, the small 4 and even 3 cylinder engines now with turbos is questionable, and very unreliable at worst. They have made cars disposable. EV's are no better, look how they get bricked (take the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as a recent example). Plus, car makers are anti right to repair, and don't want you to fix your own cars. It used to be a matter of pride in the U.S. to fix your own car, and certainly at least have basics down; I.e. changing your own oil, etc.

"turbos r scawy uwu!"

No. Tractor trailers have been using turbos for half a century without issue. They regularly hit several MILLION miles with the original engine. Railroad locomotives get multiples of that out of their turbos. Europe has been using small turbo 3/4s without issue for decades.

A properly designed turbo engine is no less reliable then a NA engine. Much like VVT, fuel injection, electronic ignition, ece, turbos will not be the giant boondoggle that people make them out to be.

As for the Iquonic, it was one station. ONE, that was bricking cars. Guess what? Gas stations can, and regularly do, brick cars and trucks by getting water in their fuel tanks. Diesel forums are full of horror stories. Guess they'll never make a reliable petrol engine, eh?

Yep. What's even worse - they advocate strongly against use of mobile phones while driving, because of how dangerous it is, and next thing they do - let manufacturers install the same kind of distraction all over the car.

That's why I'm keeping my 2017 Audi A6 till wheels fall off, as the last sensible car that Audi made. Test-drove the updated 2018 one, with all-touchscreens, and hated every last bit of it, what a joke!

The NHTSA needs to start majorly dinging auto makers for using touchscreen controls, if not the feds outright banning touchscreens in moving vehicles.

 

[RudyBob]

I love the idea of back-up cameras, Bluetooth audio and in-dash maps. So my dream is to put that stuff into an '89 Chevy Cavalier.

Mine was a 90. Rust Bucket city

 

[godrilla]

Yep. What's even worse - they advocate strongly against use of mobile phones while driving, because of how dangerous it is, and next thing they do - let manufacturers install the same kind of distraction all over the car.

That's why I'm keeping my 2017 Audi A6 till wheels fall off, as the last sensible car that Audi made. Test-drove the updated 2018 one, with all-touchscreens, and hated every last bit of it, what a joke!

Not sure about the a6 but my 2022 q7 still has plenty of physical knobs and buttons.
Side view mirrors, lights, volume, next track, driver ( 2 profiles) and passenger seat positions and lumbar support. Moonroof, defogger rear view glass and side view mirror, hazard lights. Mapping out button for heated steering wheel and or garage door/ motorized gate opener. Imo it's a perfect balance between too many buttons and sleek design. I have seen some of their newer concept cars now those have no physical buttons whatsoever no Sideview mirrors either.

https://images.app.goo.gl/owEQN8VavcpjKApcA

 

[kiwigraeme]

Lightbulb , wipers etc on my Corolla are as cheap as chips - another key say $10 for official one cut.
This cost of replacement parts on modern cars is crazy
You absolutely need windscreen protection on some new cars as windscreen costs thousands of dollars with all the things built in - probably needs an electrician to boot

 

[yRaz]

Steering wheel controls are a cheap cop out. They dont work well if you are, say, turning, and trying to control multiple functions is clunky at best.

Just put the buttons back. Everyone who tries the touchscreen eventually goes back to buttons for a reason.
"turbos r scawy uwu!"

No. Tractor trailers have been using turbos for half a century without issue. They regularly hit several MILLION miles with the original engine. Railroad locomotives get multiples of that out of their turbos. Europe has been using small turbo 3/4s without issue for decades.

A properly designed turbo engine is no less reliable then a NA engine. Much like VVT, fuel injection, electronic ignition, ece, turbos will not be the giant boondoggle that people make them out to be.

As for the Iquonic, it was one station. ONE, that was bricking cars. Guess what? Gas stations can, and regularly do, brick cars and trucks by getting water in their fuel tanks. Diesel forums are full of horror stories. Guess they'll never make a reliable petrol engine, eh?
The NHTSA needs to start majorly dinging auto makers for using touchscreen controls, if not the feds outright banning touchscreens in moving vehicles.

Diesel engines =/= Gasoline engines. Diesel engines are reliable because they are large displacement and low-revving. The problem with Gasoline turbo engines is that they are small displacement and high revving because Horsepower=Torque*RPM. Motors like the 2JZ in the Supra can handle stupid amounts of boost on ethanol because they aren't really suppose to go above 5000RPMs but they do that with 60lbs of boost. It's also a perfectly balanced straight 6. The trend towards high revving 4 cylinder turbos is nothing but bad news.

 

[DSirius]

What an interesting article. And great to see US cars manufacturers on top, like Dodge, being most reliable. This is what made in USA meant old days. Sturdy, reliable, quality, safe.
What a difference nowadays, when we have to fight for the right to repair the things we buy and own.

 

[rmcrys]

Well, it smells like paid statistics or I understood the graphics upside-down:

- an example is one of the weakest most problematic brands like Fiat / Alfa Romeo being on top, these brands at least in Europe best most as the worse;

- typical American brands give less issues than the Japanese?! Geee so the taxi drivers in Europe are all wrong as they choose Japanese / south Korean brands (Toyota, Kia) and Mercedes as their cars to run over 500.000 km in a short time... so these graphics show they should choose American brands (typically worse than European or Asian brands)? Lololol

- a car with very few knobs or buttons are less prone to give problems in the long run, not that like tesla or VW that went TOO simplistic. For the AC or Radio I still prefer physical buttons.

But the option on some cases has to do with:

- decrease physical pieces to increase car production and decrease prices where they can

- less maintenence.

I have a Tesla work just a few buttons and though I would like more, I have zero issues; most Audi e-tron have enough buttons and AFAIK they are also very solid.

 

[Marco Mint]

Look at all the plastic crap under the hood of modern cars. Then you add in all the complexity of the electrical systems, and that creates more problems. Also, the small 4 and even 3 cylinder engines now with turbos is questionable, and very unreliable at worst. They have made cars disposable. EV's are no better, look how they get bricked (take the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as a recent example). Plus, car makers are anti right to repair, and don't want you to fix your own cars. It used to be a matter of pride in the U.S. to fix your own car, and certainly at least have basics down; I.e. changing your own oil, etc.

I agree with you somewhat, but the reason why turbos appear to be unreliable with most people is that they don't know there's a few practices that will greatly extend the life of it.
Never race the engine when it's cold or in the last mile or two of your journey. If you do the latter, let the engine idle for 5 mins after stopping, so the turbo bearings are being lubed and not cooking.
This is the reason why turbo timers exist and to be fair, should be really fitted as standard. If not, use some common sense.
But yes, I would never buy a 1 litre turbo'd car engine. The more highly tuned an engine is, the more fragile it is. Also the use of plastics in engine components is ridiculous. VW's with timing belt pulley wheels made of plastic and failing, then destroying the engine? Yeah have known a few people that happened to.

 

[Clynt]

Diesel engines =/= Gasoline engines. Diesel engines are reliable because they are large displacement and low-revving. The problem with Gasoline turbo engines is that they are small displacement and high revving because Horsepower=Torque*RPM. Motors like the 2JZ in the Supra can handle stupid amounts of boost on ethanol because they aren't really suppose to go above 5000RPMs but they do that with 60lbs of boost. It's also a perfectly balanced straight 6. The trend towards high revving 4 cylinder turbos is nothing but bad news.

So many wrongs in one post. Diesels are more reliable due to the nature of the fuel being more lubricating and lower revving. Size nothing to so with it. Plenty of old 1.8 and 2 ltr examples out there with 300K plus on them.

Horsepower is torque x rpm / 5252

2JZ has a factory redline (JDM) of 7500rpm and yes is well balanced (not perfect) stock, but so is a good 4 cylinder with a well setup balance shaft in play. V6s are the worst and inline 3s are the best bar some end walk issues they can have.

Ethanol allows higher boost in any engine due to needing a fuel air ratio of around 5 to 1 compared to 13 to 1 for regular petrol. Cooling, flame travel, timing plus more come into play.

Try less fast and furious and more real world tunning.. but I just wasted 5 minutes of my life then for all the note you will take of that.

 

[NintPlayBox]

Cars of the last 3 years truly suck....that auto-shut-off "feature" when you are waiting on a red light is the most annoying thing of all.

 

[takaozo]

Cars of the last 3 years truly suck....that auto-shut-off "feature" when you are waiting on a red light is the most annoying thing of all.

That plus the constant "beeping" of line assist and side radar, too much info displayed on console and too much electronics/microcontrollers that can fail at any time. Not talking about the Internet connected cars or newer features.

I remember my fist car, a VW MK1 with no electronics, just relays and some knobs. From that to my current one with 27 microcontrollers over CAN-bus...I hate the fact that for any issue you must put a diagnose software to know what's wrong.

First car user manual had instructions on how to fix the engine and ignition timing, now this one "do not drink the pink fluid" aka G12 engine coolant..long way we come.

And yes "They don't make them like they used to"...

 

[rmcrys]

Cars of the last 3 years truly suck....that auto-shut-off "feature" when you are waiting on a red light is the most annoying thing of all.

My 2015 Audi hat that and you can turn it off. Mine is on by default (I really like that on red lights it turns off) but on heavy traffic it is annoying, so the turn it off (button on the console).

But after changing (or buying extra) to my Tesla, driving quality changed a lot: no vibration, no noises, no AC compresor turning off on red lights, no uneven acceleration, etc.. very happy.

 

[yRaz]

So many wrongs in one post. Diesels are more reliable due to the nature of the fuel being more lubricating and lower revving. Size nothing to so with it. Plenty of old 1.8 and 2 ltr examples out there with 300K plus on them.

Horsepower is torque x rpm / 5252

2JZ has a factory redline (JDM) of 7500rpm and yes is well balanced (not perfect) stock, but so is a good 4 cylinder with a well setup balance shaft in play. V6s are the worst and inline 3s are the best bar some end walk issues they can have.

Ethanol allows higher boost in any engine due to needing a fuel air ratio of around 5 to 1 compared to 13 to 1 for regular petrol. Cooling, flame travel, timing plus more come into play.

Try less fast and furious and more real world tunning.. but I just wasted 5 minutes of my life then for all the note you will take of that.

Ethanol has an extremely high octane rating and is far cheaper than race gas, thats why can handle more power. Yes, I over simplified the horsepower equation.

In my 30 years of being a car guy, this is tuenfirst I ever heard that diesel is more lubricating than gasoline. They're technically both solvents, we frequently use diesel to clean tools when working with tar and asphalt. I don't know if you remember "oil dilution" as being a problem when fuel blows by piston rings and lowers the viscosity of oil.

 

[sreams]

Steering wheel controls are a cheap cop out. They dont work well if you are, say, turning, and trying to control multiple functions is clunky at best.

What the heck are you trying to do while turning other than say, I don't know, turning?

It works as well as the owners of these cars say it does. I am one of them. Are you?

 

[bexwhitt]

Look at all the plastic crap under the hood of modern cars. Then you add in all the complexity of the electrical systems, and that creates more problems. Also, the small 4 and even 3 cylinder engines now with turbos is questionable, and very unreliable at worst. They have made cars disposable. EV's are no better, look how they get bricked (take the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as a recent example). Plus, car makers are anti right to repair, and don't want you to fix your own cars. It used to be a matter of pride in the U.S. to fix your own car, and certainly at least have basics down; I.e. changing your own oil, etc.

Changing your own oil on an under warranty car can lead you to having warranty denied if you have a problem, a receipt for some oil proves nothing.

 

[netman]

"For example, some owners reported issues with door handles and manufacturers' insistence on making them unnecessarily complex."

You mean electric retractable door handles not Mechanical...!

 

[netman]

Removing physical buttons and dials for touchscreen is the dumbest technology move ever.

Well, Tesla pioneered that in the world...! Is it safe to assume Tesla is the dumbest EV in the world...?!

 

[whateversa]

My 2015 Ford Fusion's reverse camera still often does not work due to a software bug - it pops up about unread messages on my phone for a few seconds, then shows home screen overlayed on reverse cam view... so I have to go back to neutral, then back in reverse again... No software update, meanwhile in other regions people can upgrade from a flash drive to Android Auto... But in South Africa, the dealers have no software update...

 

[Uncle Al]

Yeah, just another reason I'm keeping my old 65 Chevy Belair ....