Gojirra99

Grey market cars are cars imported legally but not through the main dealers or the car manufacturers. They are usually low volume imports.

whoster

and GM also has Vauxhall and Opel to worry about in Europe...

mmarshall

Jag was up near the top of the list in the mid / late 90's but since has dropped sharply, especially according to Consumer Reports, which I consider the best source available for gauging auto reliability. Part of it has been the effect of the very troublesome and unreliable X-class....a car with a very complex ( for a Jaguar ) drivetrain and rather sloppy quality control.

GFerg

Oh, I was thinking about the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study(first 90 Day ownership study etc.) where Jag ranked 2nd this year and 3rd last year.

http://www.jdpower.com/news/releases...asp?ID=2005069

http://www.jdpower.com/special/powerreport/jaguar/

NYlexus

Very nice! Great Job LEXUS!

Just a question? Maybe i am looking at this the wrong way but I thought LEXUS was NOT selling alot of cars in Europe... but they are still popular there? OR i guess this is a survery of ppl who already own it.

STIG

MB comes very close

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

Remember when you had to be rich to own a Mercedes?

Remember when they built them and inspected by hand for quality problems?

Remember when they used top quality parts, some imported materials just so they would be top notch?

Remember when the new CEO took over and put parts in the quality of a cavalier while focusing on sales rather than quality?


ahh.........memories.

STIG

I sure do remember the last one but i dont remember any of the rest

mmarshall

Well, one of the reasons we don't see this any more from M-B is competition from Japanese luxury-car firms. Starting to a slight extent in 1986 with Acura, but MUCH more so in 1990 with Lexus and Infiniti, M-B had some serious competition....and was forced to lower prices to keep pace. Unfortunately, unlike the Japanese firms, M-B was not able to continue produce vehicles with high quality that would sell in the price ranges of the Japanese competition. In the economizing process, electronics and hardware were two of the areas that M-B quality went down sharply.
Now, the news from M-B, quality-wise, though, is not all bad by any means. They still, along with Volvo, make what IMO are some of the most crashworthy vehicles on the planet. The M-B unibody is a marvel of bank-vault-like ruggedness, stiffness, crush-zones, and in the way it protects the cabin in a hard impact. If I was going to have a high-speed accident in any regular passenger car I would prefer it to be either a Mercedes S-Class or a Volvo S80.

Hameed

Not surprising that Lexus placed first.

I feel sorry for MB placing so low - I am sure they will address this problem sooner rather than later. It will be tough for them, but this is what they need to get back to the high quality standards they used to have. No doubt it will not be easy for them as costs of producing cars in Germany is very high.

Hey Mike, where did you purchase your subscription for Top Gear mag from? Some British website? I did some searches on google and a few british sites came up but the cost is fairly steep - close to $200.00 for 1 year.......

rominl

iTrader: (4)

wow very good news there to lexus, big props and i have to say, while there are a lot more other good cars, i am happy that s2000 won it, it's one incredible car

and mb, tsk tsk tsk.... they need to work hard on the overall pacakage

XeroK00L

Pursuit of perfection knows no boundaries!!

JBrady

Obviously I am an ignorant American as I honestly had NO IDEA what the heck a "Skoda" was

Sounds like a brand of chewing tobacco or maybe something the doctor would need to remove
"hey Sally Sue did ya git me a can of that there skoda"
"sorry sire but it seems that you have a skoda and it will need to be removed immediately"

So, I did a quick google and found out why I have failed to place this manufacturer on my radar... from the Skoda website... "The fastest and most powerful of the Škoda models serially produced to date, the sedan version has acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.3 sec. and readily reaches a speed of up to 240 km/h; the combi version has acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds and reaches maximum speed
of 238 km/h."

Nuff said.

XeroK00L

The video version of this Top Gear report, thanks to hkis @ my.is. Remember to fast forward to 41 minutes 29 seconds to view.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...71070439299421