Chief of German carmaker says J.D. Power survey is slanted toward American tastes.

BARCELONA, May 6 (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler is debating whether to abandon its goal to place its Mercedes-Benz brand first in the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates car quality survey, Mercedes chief Eckhard Cordes said on Friday.

"We are carefully analysing whether this is a reasonable goal or not, and then we will answer the question once we have finished our analysis," he told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference here.

The premium Mercedes-Benz brand has been pulling out all the stops to address quality problems that have dented its elegant image and raised doubts about its avowed goal of topping J.D. Power U.S. survey of initial quality in new cars by 2006.

"In order to become (number) one in J.D. Power, it is not only about hardware quality. It also has to do with the American taste, how they want cars," Cordes had earlier told the Automotive News conference.

A car's ratings may be marked down, for instance, if buyers feel they have too many functional buttons on the steering wheel, he said.

"One has to carefully analyse whether with a global car it is really advisable to strive for being J.D. Power number one," he added.

"If we come to the conclusion that the clear answer is 'yes', we want to be number one. But you see that we are still debating this, or whether we are better off with number two or number 3. That is still open."

Should the company decide a second-place ranking is acceptable, that does not mean that cars sold under the Mercedes brand are worse than those sold under the top-ranked brand, he added.

Cordes did not specify which J.D. Power survey he was referring to. In the J.D. Power 2004 Initial Quality Survey of auto nameplates, Mercedes-Benz ranked No. 10 with 106 problems per 100 vehicles. Toyota's premium Lexus brand ranked No. 1 with 87 problems.


On other subjects, Cordes said Mercedes had done extensive analysis on building an engine plant in Eastern Europe but then decided not to proceed for now.
"At least for the time being as a premium carmaker, we have decided that we can continue to operate our plants, our factories in Germany, and we have invested here," he said.
"But I add I am definitely not in a position here today to exclude this option for many years to come."
He said he still saw "enormous potential to take costs out of the system in our German plants, which should keep us fit".
He played down prospects for exporting Mercedes-Benz cars from China, where they are about to start being assembled for the domestic market.
"I dare say that the Mercedes-Benz brand will not be at the forefront of exporting cars from China. Maybe other brands will come first, and I am not only talking about my company, DaimlerChrysler," he said.
"Most of us will see cars being exported from China to other regions of the world, but I think the premium cars will be late followers, if ever."
Fellow DaimlerChrysler management board member Ruediger Grube told reporters in Shanghai last month that the carmaker was in talks with a Chinese partner about building Chryslers there and exporting them to North America.
But he stressed that a decision on whether to go ahead with the idea would be made only in the second half of the year.

 

He raises good points.

 

Very good points. For instance, JD Power knocks cars for having brake dust issues. Personally, I want my car to stop well and I'll clean up the brake dust as a byproduct of this. I don't want my car manufacturer to lower braking capability in order to avoid this (and thus score higher on the charts).

 

Or they know that the truth about their reliability issues will hurt them.

 

GS3Tek, that's probably part of it, too.

Doug, I agree about things like the brake dust issue. Of course, I wouldn't mind if they'd just start supplying brembo brakes or other aftermarket brakes that don't produce as much brakedust...

 

Benz trying to be #1? I think they should focus on getting into the top 10 first.

 

Benz has been #1 in the past, so I'm sure with mountains of effort, and even more money that will completely change their manufacturing program, they can reclaim that prize. The problem I see is that they shot themselves in the foot by making "2006" their arbitrary goal. When did they make this decision, 2004? Do they not expect other car companies to improve their reliability as well? Putting a time frame that small on an improvement that large is always going to prove disasterous if you're not into it 100% (which they obviously haven't been, my mom's 2005 CLK500 has had way more problems than my 96 Lexus or our 2001 Corvette).

EDIT: Another thing I forgot is the part about "being slanted towards American taste". True there are some questionable JD criteria such as the brake dust issue but obviously there are others including when major s*** like an engine or transmission completely fail. We can't be naive and say that MB has some mundane problems like steering wheel buttons or brake dust because we all know that we've heard the stories and read the recalls about major parts of the car and what can go wrong with them.

James

 

Yes, they have been #1 (in the 1980's) before the Japenese got into the Luxury car business.

They will never reclaim the highest quality awards because Lexus won't let them.

 

"Death can come swiftly to a market leader. By the time you have lost the positive-feedback cycle it's often too late to change what you've been doing, and all of the elements of a negative spiral come into play." - Bill Gates, "The Road Ahead", Chapter 3

 

Braking capacity doesn't have to be lowered to generate less brake dust. The dust is generated as a result of friction and wear betwen the rotors and the inside of the brake pads when pressure is applied. There are several ways that excess dust can be avoided. One way is by simply using larger rotors and pads with less friction. The same amount...or less....of brake dust can then be generated with the same or more amount of braking power.
Another way is to use the same size tires but with a softer, sticker tread compound. Because of the increased friction between the tire and the road, more braking power will be generated with less pressure and friction on the pads, thus generating less dust.
Another way, is to use tires with the same tread compound but with a slightly larger footprint....same results.
Another way is to equilize the weight on the brakes as much as possible under braking to make all four wheels do their share of the braking so that the fronts don't do an excessive amount....you'll note that, on most cars, most brake dust accumulates on the front wheels. This is why rear-engine Porsches have such outstanding braking...the forward weight transfer under braking places the center of braking gravity right in the middle of the car where all four of the huge rotors do an equal share.

There, of course, are other ways to accomplish what you are describing, but I don't have time to go into them. And you....being an engineer....you, I'm sure, may know some tricks I don't.

 

Famous last words.

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

I agree that, except for safety issues, Lexus TODAY makes a far better car, quality-wise, than M-B, but what were we hearing so much of 15 years ago?.......EXACTLY the SAME thing in REVERSE..................."Lexus will never make it because Mercedes won't let them."

Some of you guys here at CL may not be old enough to remember that, but boy, I sure do...."the Germans are going to teach those Japanese wanna-bes a thing or two." And we all know what happened.


And, last, remember that Hyundai and Kia miraculously went from some of the worst cars in the industry to some of the best in the space of just a few years......turnarounds DO happen even for the worst of compaines.

 

The bottom line is sales. If benz weren't selling cars, they'd be jumping and hopping to improve the quality in like.....10 seconds. WHy should they. People are still buying the cars. I don't know why but they are. What these guys really mean is why should they spend a ton of cash to pursue #1 when they don't have to. Everytime I look in the classifieds I see more benzes than any other brand. A lot of these people get out of their benz and buy another....I don't get it. One reason is horsepower. Another is the tremendous safety aspects. Another is certainly the styling. To me, none of that means a crap when the car is always in the shop.

 

How convenient... instead of actually improving their quality to regain the top spot, they discredit J. D. Power's surveys and make their low ranking look okay. That is just LAME and they should be seriously ashamed of themselves.

 

Mercedes quality is in a negative spiral. They simply can't match Toyota's cash, size, vigilance, production economies of scale, efficiency, electronics-technology, and parts supplier-leverage. It's too late for MB.

 

Well, XeroK00L, I can tell you this; That I have been a J.D. Power panelist and automotive focus group member myself (not just a random survey in the mail) a number of times and I can say I am not very impressed with how Power does their research. Consumer Reports, IMO, does a MUCH better job....especially in the auto reliability section.

I do agree with you, though, that M-B cannot blame Power for their troubles.