{"id":83846,"date":"2014-10-27T16:11:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T20:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=83846"},"modified":"2014-10-27T16:11:36","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T20:11:36","slug":"infotainment-systems-are-the-plague-of-the-auto-industry-says-consumer-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/10\/infotainment-systems-are-the-plague-of-the-auto-industry-says-consumer-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Infotainment Systems are the Plague of the Auto Industry, Says Consumer Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
CR gives thumbs up to the Toyota Camry, the magazine predicting good reliability for the 2015 update.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The quality of the cars sold on the U.S. market has hit a plateau, and motorists can put the blame on new technologies \u2013 especially the infotainment systems that have become increasingly common on today\u2019s models, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.<\/p>\n

The influential non-profit publication likened the issue to a \u201creliability plague,\u201d chief auto tester Jake Fisher noting that, if anything, the latest annual Consumer Reports Automotive Reliability study might be downplaying the problem because it reports only actual defects.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Your Flagship News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The situation would be even worse if the study included complaints about just how difficult many infotainment systems are to operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big problem is infotainment. Take that out and (the quality of) cars would be improving,\u201d said Fisher, during an appearance before the Detroit Automotive Press Association.<\/p>\n

New technology, in general, has become a big problem for the industry \u2013 not only infotainment systems, but turbochargers, and transmissions, Fisher offered as example.<\/p>\n

(A TDB exclusive: are “geographic recalls” putting millions of American motorists at risk? <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for this special report.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While such problems can be seen industry-wide, the annual Consumer Reports study, based on a survey of its subscribers, as well as its own testing, found that there\u2019s a wide disparity in overall reliability depending on manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
CR dinged the new Chevrolet Silverado and near-twin GMC Sierra full-size pickups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they have since 2008, Lexus and its sibling Toyota brand topped the chart in the latest study \u2013 Japanese manufacturers, in general, leading the industry with six of the top 10 brands. Buick was the only Detroit maker, in the sixth position, while Audi and Porsche were the two European brands on the list. Korean carmaker Kia nabbed the tenth slot.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for a review of the new 2015 Toyota Camry.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not all Asian brands fared as well, with Nissan and its luxury brand Infiniti lagging well below the market leaders. Infiniti was hammered by a variety of different problems, especially with its new Q50 sedan\u2019s balky infotainment system, explained Fisher.<\/p>\n

Among domestic makers there was a wide gap. Chrysler\u2019s reliability slipped sharply compared to the 2013 survey, and the automaker\u2019s Italian partner Fiat was at the absolute bottom of the list, Fisher reporting the 500L people-mover was the single-most problem-plagued vehicle in the Consumer Reports study. But all of the various Chrysler brands lost ground over the past year.<\/p>\n

Ford, on the other hand, \u201clooks like it has turned the corner\u201d after suffering several years of quality problems, said Fisher. The Ford brand itself climbed three places up the chart, while the upscale Lincoln division posted the largest improvement of any brand, rising 12 spots. Addressing infotainment issues helped both brands.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
CR readers declared the Fiat 500L the worst vehicle among all from a quality standpoint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

General Motors was the highest-ranked of the Detroit Big Three, its Buick division making it into the Auto Reliability Study\u2019s top 10, while Cadillac jumped up by seven places. Every model Buick makes had at least average or better reliability. That wasn\u2019t the case for Chevrolet and GMC, both slumping markedly this year, largely due to nagging problems with GM\u2019s full-size pickups, the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.<\/p>\n

The other domestic automaker, California-based Tesla, has had its issues with quality lately but still managed to maintain an average score and keep its coveted \u201cRecommended\u201d rating.<\/p>\n

Among European brands, Audi\u2019s 5th<\/sup> place finish was significant considering \u201cit was down in the bottom five years ago,\u201d said Fisher. The \u201cbig disappointment,\u201d he added, was the tumble by Mercedes-Benz, which fell 11 places to 24th<\/sup> on the list of brands. The study data point to problems with the German maker\u2019s new CLA and S-Class models.<\/p>\n

Ironically, those are some of the biggest sales successes Mercedes has ever had.<\/p>\n

But they point to an uncomfortable fact, said Fisher, who noted that, on the whole, all-new or significantly updated vehicles tend to have more trouble than holdover models or those going through minor, mid-cycle updates.<\/p>\n

Add new technology and the combination can be disastrous when it comes to quality and reliability.<\/p>\n

(Gas prices keep plunging. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to see how low they can go.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quality of the cars sold on the U.S. market has hit a plateaus, and we can blame new technologies \u2013 especially increasingly common infotainment systems, according to a new study by Consumer Reports. TheDetroitBureau.com has more on the magazine’s annual Automotive Reliability Study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83846"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=83846"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=83846"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=83846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}