In recent news, Consumer Reports has labeled Buick as the strongest automotive manufacturing brand in today’s market, based on 740,000 online surveys.
Buick topped the list of 28 brand names, including Audi, Ford, Nissan, Acura, as well as other General Motors companies like Chevrolet and GMC, the scores of which were lessened due to the poor ratings of the Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon XL the publication recorded. In fact, Buick was the only Detroit brand in the top 10, as Cadillac fell to the 25th spot with consumers continuing to voice their complaints about the CUE infotainment system
While Buick sits pretty at the top, other companies like Silicon Valley’s darling Tesla don’t seem to be doing so well – at least not to the folks who took this survey. Consumers felt short-handed in regards to the build quality of the Tesla, infotainment bugs and glitches, and drivetrain issues.
Comments
This site offers the chart —
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/10/20/consumer-reports-auto-reliability/74270438/
What can I say? I’m a happy Buick owner. 🙂
I’m confused —
1). Buick is #7. The headline says “strongest brand”. Being part of the Elite Eight is not a Championship. But good on Buick for hanging in there.
2). We don’t like Consumer Reports. Unless they like us. Then we like them?
3.) … and bringing up the rear, Cadillac, followed by FCA… Not the best company to keep. But I read that Caddy/Yukon/Tahoe owners had “platform problems”, whatever that means. Who knows, but I’d suspect there’s more to Cadillac’s lack of appeal beyond the CUE interface ease-of-use.
The first thing I’m going to say is that your username reminds of the classic Phil Collins song. Really the music video from the movie. When I saw that music video the first time it brought me to tears. Wow. What feeling, what emotion — stuffed into one song. And I knew — I just knew — the movie itself couldn’t have been half as good. So I never saw it. Until my wife insisted I did some months ago. And man… was I ever right. 😉
Okay, now my responses —
1.) Yeah. WTF is with the ‘strongest’ headline. “Buick rated ‘kinda sorta the bestest’.” Huh?
2.) I don’t care what fanboys think of their favorite brand. I care about objective opinions and statistics. CONSUMER REPORTS never promised to get things perfect. They can’t. There is no perfect. But they’ve generally been on point for decades. That said —
— one thing has always irked me is that they’re a bit too car enthusiast. Meaning they poo-poo fuel efficiency as ‘insufferable’. “Why that car has no get up and go!” they say of the Scion Xa — which had plenty zip for such a tiny engine in such a tiny car. IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A CORVETTE YOU PINHEADS!
3. Chevy, Buick, GMC, Cadillac. That’s a LOT of brands. They compete against themselves, right? Meaning how in the world would you get all four brands in the top 7? Good luck with that.
And so from strictly a statistical standpoint — a math person would say DRAMATICALLY REDUCE the cars you sell. I know by cutting Pontiac and such this has already happened, but my point is the fewer variables (cars) the easier they are to control.
For instance — if the Buick Encore is reliable (?) build a Chevy and Caddy version closed based on said car. (This is already half happening, presuming it is reliable.) The more GM does this, the more ‘reliable’ all their cars become.
The problem is that you enthusiasts frown upon this idea. Because the more ‘same’ these cars become the more boring GM becomes. And I hear you. It’s fun to see all sorts of experimental cars in all the brands. But those experiments pull down reliability averages.
One reason why Apple computer has such ‘reliable’ equipment is they sell so few types of computers and phones. I’ve recently become an Asus fan and it’s simply comical — if not outrageous — how many types of computers they sell. They’re frickin’ crazy persons.
Well There is not much to be confused over here. This is about as bogus as the poor scores. Buick has traditionally done well with CR because of their owner base.
While I am sure they have great cars today even when their cars totally sucked they got better scores when they did not deserve them.
I am balanced on this here and reject generally most CR reviews and reports from their readership.
That is not to say that Buick is making bad cars but just look back and they traditionally have done this well even when their cars were no where close to this quality.
This is not unlike the Reviews on Amazon where people can complain about the oddest things and rate a product down even if it is not quality related.
Scott
Disagree that reliability surveys of customers driving the vehicles can be totally discounted. Survey is nothing more than responding to questions such as did you return your vehicle to the dealership to correct a problem. Either you did or you didn’t.
Is there some bias–probably yes. I would tend to agree with you that Cadillac owners are probably more critical of their vehicles than Buick owners, and they really should be because of the price premium. If you claim to be the Standard of the World, you better respond accordingly.
Don’t know if I want to tread in to the minefield, but I’m going to anyhow. Buick’s customer base is probably much older than many product lines with their driving styles a lot less aggressive and overall less demanding of their vehicles. But then again, this leads to less issues. But overall, their cars are delivering what they paid their money for and that is what it all about–getting what you paid for!
Buick owners are happy for their expenditures, Cadillac owners aren’t!
You are correct that Buick owners are a little older but they are also the most loyal of any GM brand too. This has more to do with their consistent reviews than anything.
Chevy is in a more competitive market segment and has more people in and out of their cars as now does Cadillac. Buyers today outside the Asian cars are not as loyal. I see Toyota owners with so many issues and yet they swear by their cars as Chevy owners did in the 70’s when their fenders were rusting off.
This stuff changed over time and will change again.
Reminds me of an old cartoon:
2 men with standing on the edge of a cliff, one turned and speaking to the other. A car is sailing over the edge headed to inevitable doom on the rocks below. the caption reads something to the effect of “I see Consumer Reports is testing another vehicle”
A lot of CR’s survey structure seems a bit excessive.