Ownership stats throw up surprises

JD Power is a well known name in the US and Europe, but a relative newcomer to the Australian market. The company conducts market research by inviting feedback from consumers concerning their purchases.

In the US, the company is the Bible for statistics-led assessment of automotive brands in reliability and quality indices.

JDP has just released its first Australian Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study, the outcome of a project assessing the level of satisfaction experienced by new car owners during the first 36 months of ownership of said vehicle.

Four parameters are weighted in varying degrees to arrive at an aggregate result somewhere between zero and 1000 points.

Vehicle appeal accounts for 34 per cent of the aggregate and is based on the owner's satisfaction with the way the car looks, performs and accommodates occupants.

The second parameter, ownership costs, can be defined as running costs for servicing, repairs, fuel economy and insurance. Results for this factor contribute up to 26 per cent of the aggregate.

Quality and Reliability of the vehicle decide 22 per cent of the total score and dealership service (from the service department specifically, rather than from sales staff) makes up the 19 per cent balance.

By our calculation, that's 101 per cent, but presumably there are decimal places rounded up to the nearest whole percentage point in those figures.

JDP announced the top ten brands in the survey and did survey other brands, but in general, the sampling of these lower-volume brands was too small to be deemed statistically significant. In other words, too little feedback from owners of these brand could have skewed the ranking too far one way or the other and not provide an accurate picture of the brand's actual standing.

These brands were: Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Citroen, Daihatsu, Fiat, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Peugeot, Renault, Saab, Suzuki, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The survey was a relatively small sampling as it was -- 3078 responses from new car owners, out of a market of over a million vehicles sold last year alone.

Out of a possible thousand points in total, the top ten brands were spread from 736 points up to 780; not a huge spread overall if one considers the divergent model ranges of those brands. The tally was:

Mazda 780
Honda 775
Toyota 772
Industry Average 762
Mitsubishi 757
Subaru 755
Nissan 751
Hyundai 750
Kia 744
Ford 743
Holden 736

JDP has not explained the method to arrive at the industry average of 762 points. A straight average of the ten scores yields a figure of 756 -- which would have placed Mitsubishi one point above the average and Subaru one point below.

According to the company, Mazda scored highly in the survey for a combination of quality/reliability and vehicle appeal. Toyota and Nissan tied for points in servicing, but Toyota shot ahead on ownership costs.

It's interesting to note that Korean companies are beginning to challenge Japanese companies, but Australian companies -- traditionally the whipping boy in this sort of survey -- are actually not very far behind.

And Ford is ahead of Holden, a result not borne out in sales...