Prius Tops the List of Most Dependable Car (again)

The JD Powers vehicle dependability study reporting the best classified the Prius as a compact, and had the Fusion as best in the mid-size.

The worst aren't from the Powers VDS, but the authors' opinion of worst.

 

Article:

Unless the survey has changed, this statement is at best misleading and should be "cars less than 3 years old." IIRC the average age of the cars in the JDP survey is 18 months old.

JDP calls 'vehicle dependability" what I call initial quality. It is the reason I ignore their data and conclusions. Tangentially, JDP used to have a survey for cars less than five years old, but changed it so that (in their words) recent quality improvements by Detroit would be apparent. Naturally they did not feel obliged to point out that most of the data gap closing from the change in methods was an artefact of the change. Since all cars have bumper to bumper warranties out to 36 months at least, and initial quality is a poor marker of long-term (> 5 years) quality, I wonder if any consumers who understand the methods find the data valuable.

 

Some times I see 'Prius safest car' or 'Prius most dependable car' and wonder, how much is the metal car, and how much is the choice of owners?

No one is Very few are going to buy a Prius to be an idiot in, so a Prius is going to look safer and more reliable than a Mustang (as an example) even if the metal car is no better. The Mustang is going to attract a more 'living on the edge' demographic, who will make more frequent ill considered choices. It HAS to look less safe and less reliable.

 

^^ absolutely. IIHS tries to control this variable somewhat by car groupings. You can see the effect in action by trending customer satisfaction of the Prius: as the customer demographic widened, the satisfaction decreased even though the car objectively improved.

 

Toyota is leading most of these until it comes to the SUV. Why is the FJ so bad?

 

Why would you buy an FJ except to be stupid in? Commute to work, no. Date car, no. Work off road, no. It should have the same demographic that buys Jeeps.

 

Worst cars are invention of AOL Autos, it is not JD Power's worst car list...which is silly then.

But otherwise, this is pretty much only reliability survey in US. In Germany, there is ADAC, Autobild, TUV surveys, and Prius does excellent on all of them. TUV (technical inspection centers) goes up to 12 years, and there Rav4 and 911 share 1st place usually.

 

Great to hear that.

I am not totally surprised about the Prius. It really sets the standard which others are judged by.

Funny the Volt wasn't mentioned.

DBCassidy

 

thanks spwolf. I didn't read that close enough. So, I will just ignore the "worst" part.

 

Well Volt is too young and sells in too small quantities, so it probably wont be in even in 2 years from now.

otherwise, worldwide, GM cars dont do well on there surveys so I doubt Volt will...

I think Chevy is worst rated brand in UK JD Power survey -.

Of course thats because its Daewoo Chevy.

 

dbcassidy and spwolf, you guys are just funny. the article clearly states the vehicle had to have at least 3 years of history. The Volt and the PiP didn't get considered.

 

well to defend the volt a little, consumers reports ranks it alongside the Prius for being dependable.

 

so if the prius gets best compact and yaris gets best subcompact, does that mean the prius c gets a similar ranking for being the mashup of the two?

 

Ouch.

 

why I am funny? I said what you said.

 

Is it that obvious? I have been bragging about this car as much as I did with my first Prius.