Chevy Is Number One Domestic Brand For Initial Quality, Seriously

 Posted By Matt Hardigree

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1st Gear: Maybe J.D. Power's IQS Has Run Its Course

I've always found the J.D. Power initial quality survey to be a little odd, but this year's results are going to sound bizarre in light of everything that's happened lately.

Despite recalls, Chevrolet is No. 1 domestic brand for initial qualityDespite recalls, Chevrolet is No. 1 domestic brand for initial qualityDespite recalls, Chevrolet is No. 1 domestic br...

Six 2014 GM models were ranked highest in their segment — the most of any automaker. Read on freep.​com

As Brent Snavely points out, Chevy was the highest ranking domestic brand and six 2014 GM models were the best in their segments, beating all other automakers. SAY WHAT?

 

Well, sir, that's because these new cars are made by a completely different company. Completely different. Completely different. Completely different. Completely different.

 

I mean, but isn't that...the whole point? "Initial" is in the name because, well, that's what it's measuring...

.Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney.

 

But the survey only measures consumers' impressions of new vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership. It doesn't reflect longer-term quality and reliability — J.D. Power conducts separate studies that analyze those. It was based on responses from 86,000 new car buyers who responded to an online survey in May.4

At 90 days you are still in that high of buying something new. Of course you're going to like it still.

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Still, it's some kind of win for GM when they really need the press. Jaguar's PR guy emailed us about it it, so he thinks it's important, and I guess I'll point out that Porsche, Jaguar and Lexus finished in the top three. Fiat was at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

In reading the wrap ups of yesterday's GM testimony on the hill, it seems like people generally agree that Barra held herself better than last time but it wasn't fun.

 

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra faced a sometimes hostile House subcommittee.

"The report absolves previous CEOs, the legal department, Ms. Barra, and the GM Board from knowing about the tragedy beforehand," 

DeGette said. "But that is nothing to be proud of. That the most senior GM executives may not have known about a defect that caused more than a dozen deaths is, frankly, alarming."

In Barra's first interaction with Congress since the release this month of the internal company investigation on the ignition switch, lawmakers made clear many questions remained. 

They sought to determine whether there was a corporate cover-up at GM, while looking to establish if more safety defects exist in GM cars on the road today. They also questioned how completely the largest U.S. automaker will go in compensating victims of ignition-switch related crashes.

 

 

But we learned a little more about just how awful GM has been about this whole thing…

In the emails made public on Wednesday, GM employee Laura Andres in 2005 sent one to engineers warning that a 2006 Chevy Impala Special car she was driving had experienced an engine stall when moving between a paved road and gravel.

She said a technician had advised the problem may be with part of the ignition switch. 

"I think this is a serious safety problem, especially if this switch is on multiple programs. I'm thinking big recall," Andres said in an email sent to 11 other GM employees including the vice president of North American engineering.

Andres declined to comment on Wednesday.