BMW is 3rd and what about Hummers and Hybrids?

[JetBlack330Ci]

Apparently a lot of Hummer drivers complain about fuel efficiency, what did they expect? But you'd be surprized to read some hybrid owners complain about fuel conmsumption too. Anyhow BMW made it to the top 3.

Whether a Hummer or a Hybrid, the Big Complaint Is Fuel Use


May 7, 2003
By DANNY HAKIM

DETROIT, May 6 - Drivers of Hummers and hybrids have
something in common after all.

Both are dissatisfied with how much gas their vehicles
consume, according to a closely watched survey of initial
quality by J. D. Power and Associates released today. Fuel
consumption was listed by drivers of both General Motors'
Hummer H2 and the fuel-efficient Toyota Prius hybrid as
their top complaint - though Hummer complaints dwarfed
those for Prius.

Fuel consumption was the second most common driver
complaint industrywide, the highest ranking for fuel
consumption in the 17 years of the annual survey; it had
never before cracked the top five.

Over all, Japanese automakers continue to lead in initial
quality, with Toyota holding onto the top spot, though that
lead has narrowed considerably in recent years. Domestic
automakers pulled even with the Europeans for the first
time. Among individual brands, G.M.'s Cadillac division was
helped by a strong performance for its new CTS sedan and
rose six spots, to second place, behind Toyota's Lexus
brand.

To conduct the survey, J. D. Power asked 52,000 people who
bought or leased a vehicle if any of 135 potential problems
emerged in the first 90 days after delivery. The most
common complaint continues to be wind noise, but this year
the surveys were conducted in February and March, when gas
prices were fluctuating because of the looming war in Iraq.


The auto industry's market research generally ranks fuel
economy far down on buyers' priority list, but it seems to
have registered after customers bought their vehicles, as
the level of fuel consumption complaints doubled.

That did not make for an auspicious debut for the Hummer in
the survey, though the brand's new H2 sport utility has
certainly sold well. Even though H2 starts just under
$50,000, it is the only G.M. vehicle that sells well
without huge incentives. But the jaws of some buyers
apparently dropped when they filled their 32-gallon gas
tanks. They ranked Hummer in last place among 36 brands,
reporting 225 problems per 100 Hummers over all, compared
with an industry average of 133.

"With the H2, it leaves you scratching your head," said
John Tews, a spokesman for J. D. Power. "What were they
expecting?"

One point of confusion, Mr. Tews said, could be that
Hummers are so large that they are exempt from federal fuel
economy regulations that govern most other vehicles,
meaning G.M. does not have to post mileage on window
stickers.

"Maybe customers thought they would get 12 and only got 10
miles per gallon," he said.

Brian Goebel, a spokesman for G.M., said G.M.'s internal
research confirmed J. D. Power's findings.

"We were not pleased with the score of the Hummer," he
said. "The biggest issue on the Hummer was excessive fuel
consumption, so the increasing prices of fuel didn't help."


He said G.M. would focus on "managing expectations,"
adding, "There is the possibility of placing the mileage
sticker on the vehicle, and we are looking at that."

Surprisingly, fuel consumption was also a complaint for
buyers of Japanese hybrids, which conserve gas by
supplementing their internal combustion engines with
electric power. Such vehicles are designed to perform well
in city driving and conserve energy in stop-and-start
traffic, but lose much of their added efficiency on
highways. Mr. Tews said some hybrid drivers were
disappointed that for the extra cost of a Prius, the
highway mileage should be even better.

If fuel consumption was the top complaint for the Prius, it
still came in best among compact cars, with just 81
complaints over all per 100 vehicles. Fuel consumption was
the second-highest complaint of buyers of the hybrid
version of the Honda Civic.

Over all, for the first time since 1998, the initial
quality of the nation's cars and trucks did not improve -
holding steady at 133 problems per 100 vehicles - partly
because of pressure from the industry's accelerating
product development cycles as competition proliferates.

"Any time you launch a vehicle, you put considerable stress
on the manufacturing system to maintain productivity and
quality," said Gary L. Cowger, president of G.M.'s North
American operations, in a statement.

G.M. fell slightly in the survey, from 130 problems last
year to 134, but remains ahead of the Ford Motor Company,
DaimlerChrysler and Nissan. Some 44 percent of G.M.'s
production volume last year came from vehicle
introductions. Honda fell from second to fourth place,
behind Toyota, Porsche and BMW, respectively. Ford's
initial quality complaints fell from 143 to 136, while
DaimlerChrysler improved from 141 to 139.

Initial quality reputation is considered an important
influence over purchase decisions, though the gaps between
automakers are becoming harder to distinguish.

"The next battlefield is long-term durability," said Joe
Ivers, executive director of quality and customer
satisfaction at J. D. Power. "It drives more new vehicle
purchase decisions, it drives the resale value and it
affects the manufacturers," he added, through the residual
values of the vehicles they lease.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/07/bu...488068b77ec5e4