Indian Cars Are Getting More Dependable

In the past decade, Indian cars have moved from being highly unreliable to having one of the most reliable cars in the world. In a recently released JD Power Vehicle Reliability Survey, the present Indian car owners are happier with their cars as they have become more reliable. They are throwing up lesser problems now than ever before.

The JD Power India Vehicle Dependability Survey measured the reliability of three year old vehicles in terms of problems reported per 100 vehicles (PP100). The survey ranked the vehicles from ten different segments. The study too into account based on the statistics of 150 problematic symptoms found across nine categories including engineering, and other problems encountered by owners with their vehicles that are used over a period of time.

An average of 290 problems per 100 vehicles was reported across all segments. Although this figure remains significantly higher than PP 100 scores of international cars, is it 41 percent lesser than figures from 2008.

The study focused on several problems including vehicle exterior, driving experience, features, controls and displays, audio and entertainment, seating, heating facility, ventilation and air conditioning, interiors, engine and gear shifting. The vehicles that attracted lowest scores suggested high reliability ranking.

The survey surprised everyone by awarding the least marks to two of Ford models. Ford ranked the highest in the entry level sedan category and SUV segment. Toyota Motors got the highest positioned in the premium mid sized and MUV/MPV segments. Ford Ikon leads in the entry level midsize segment and the Endeavour tops in the SUV segment.

Toyota models such as Corolla leads in the premium midsize segment and the Innova ranks the highest in the MUV/MPV segment. Surprisingly, Maruti Suzuki Zen made it to the top position in small car segment. In the mid-size segment, Honda City was ranked the highest.

The surprise losers in the survey ranking were Honda CR-V which lot out to Ford Endeavour in the SUV segment and Honda Civic which lost the top spot to Toyota Corolla.

As per the survey, Honda performs particularly well at the name plate level as it receives only 159 complaints. Honda Motors leads the industry for its highly reliable and durable cars. It reported fewer problems in the areas of vehicle exterior, driving experience and engine.

Among the key problems experienced by the owners, the most frequently reported ones were squeaking doors, and abnormal interior noise. Over and above all these, fuel consumption reigns supreme at the top 10 problems across all vehicle segments.

The survey revealed that 50 percent of all luxury car owners are covered under an extended warranty or maintenance servicing contract. This is a significant jump of 14 percent over figures in 2008. In the small car category only 28 percent of them and 31 percent of mid-size car owners are covered under an extended warranty scheme.

Although the improvement is evident across most categories, it is mainly noticeable in areas of driving experience and engine performance. The JD Power India vehicle dependability survey drew the findings based on evidences given by 5,105 owners who had purchased new cars between July 2005 and October 2006, across 20 cities in India.