The study finds that the frequency and severity of
component replacement has a particularly strong impact on customer loyalty intentions. Component areas for which the impact is greatest include the Engine/Transmission category. When engine components are replaced or rebuilt, just 11 percent of customers state that they definitely intend to purchase or lease another vehicle of the same make, compared with nearly 40 percent among owners who report replacing no components.
As the U.S. economy continues to
sputter, consumers are indefinitely delaying many big-ticket purchases.
Nowhere is this more evident than on new car dealer lots, where sales
are down drastically, and inventory of new vehicles is piling up as
consumers opt to hang on to their current vehicles rather than buy new.
In fact, the average age of a vehicle at trade-in has increased to 73
months in 2009 from 65 months in 2006. With no end to the nation’s
economic troubles in sight, finding a dependable vehicle is even more
critical.
To provide both auto industry and consumer audiences insights into the
long-term reliability of today’s new vehicles, the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Vehicle
Dependability StudySM (VDS) focuses on problems
experienced by original owners of three-year-old vehicles (2006
model-year vehicles). The study is used extensively by the world’s auto
manufacturers to help design and build better vehicles—which typically
retain higher resale values—and by consumers to help make more-informed
choices for both new and used vehicles.
The 2009 Vehicle Dependability Study provides information gathered from
over 46,000 original owners. Performance is measured using a “problems
per 100 vehicles (PP100)” metric. A lower PP100 score indicates better
performance and a higher PP100 score indicates worse performance. The
2009 study covers a total of 202 total problems, broken out into eight
major problem categories as follows:
2009 Vehicle Dependability Study Results
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