When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Porsche really stinks in this study. Second to the worst is not a tally you can brag about.
What's eye-opening is the PP100 scores in the 2022 survey, compared to those I remembered from 2013 when I bought my previous P-car (981). I was able to dig up the old results:
The 2022 results from this article:
The best score from 2022 would have been among the worst in 2013, and Porsche fell from 80 problems/100 vehicles to 200. By 2020, when my Macan S was built, Porsche had already fallen to 186.
I got lucky with both the 981S and 95B.2S, with no trips to the dealer needed for either. Makes me suspect that most new Porsche customers are having a reasonably good experience while a few are really getting hosed.
We are on our second MACAN S (2019 my son has it now 26,000 miles, and 2022 8 months old 5,000 miles)
No return trips to the dealer from me, but my son had them replace the headlights, they were "crazing"
Before the Macans we had BMW's every one need a dealer 'repair" or 2.....
Not sure about this data provided with almost zero context, aside from a cursory reference to JD Power figures for "problems"...
For example, how much of these misses for "repeat buyers" is based on availability or dealer markups? Porsche is having a hard time getting people allocations, I don't think "brand loyalty" is really something that's high on their priority list at the moment...
That's why I thought the JD Power results were more interesting. I agree you can't judge brand loyalty under present market conditions, but you certainly can still judge initial quality, to the extent those surveys are ever valid to begin with.
Not only did Porsche take a massive fall, there's a general switchup between luxury brands and domestic/blue-collar nameplates. Bad idea to buy a Dodge in 2013, good idea to buy one in 2022... but only relative to its competition. You'll still get a lower-quality car in 2022.
What's eye-opening is the PP100 scores in the 2022 survey, compared to those I remembered from 2013 when I bought my previous P-car (981). I was able to dig up the old results:
The 2022 results from this article:
The best score from 2022 would have been among the worst in 2013, and Porsche fell from 80 problems/100 vehicles to 200. By 2020, when my Macan S was built, Porsche had already fallen to 186.
I got lucky with both the 981S and 95B.2S, with no trips to the dealer needed for either. Makes me suspect that most new Porsche customers are having a reasonably good experience while a few are really getting hosed.
That JD power study is a bunch of nonsense. A friend of mine is a mechanic and always says that GM and Nissan make some of the worst vehicles. He has seen several late model GM vehicles with 4 cylinder engines having complete engine failure by 30 or 40K miles. Nissans CTV transmissions are also very problematic.
That's why I thought the JD Power results were more interesting. I agree you can't judge brand loyalty under present market conditions, but you certainly can still judge initial quality, to the extent those surveys are ever valid to begin with.
Not only did Porsche take a massive fall, there's a general switchup between luxury brands and domestic/blue-collar nameplates. Bad idea to buy a Dodge in 2013, good idea to buy one in 2022... but only relative to its competition. You'll still get a lower-quality car in 2022.
At a minimum I'd like to know what qualifies as a "problem".
For example, if it's just counting the number of service visits, that could also imply that Porsche owners are some of the whiniest, most-entitled customers for bringing their car in for service if they hear "excessive wind noise". Not necessarily that there is actual wind noise to begin with, and the car is just fine.
At a minimum I'd like to know what qualifies as a "problem". For example, if it's just counting the number of service visits, that could also imply that Porsche owners are some of the whiniest, most-entitled customers for bringing their car in for service if they hear "excessive wind noise". Not necessarily that there is actual wind noise to begin with, and the car is just fine. All data is (are) not created equal.
I believe it's unscheduled service visits during the first year of ownership, but would have to do some digging to find out if that's really true.
One complaint I've had with JD Power is that they don't distinguish between a dropped Bluetooth connection and a blown head gasket when it comes to "reliability." But at the end of the day, an unscheduled service visit is a hassle regardless of the cause.
The problem with your suggestion is that it doesn't explain why Porsche customers got so much pickier. We were told to expect excellence, but if anything, Porsche owners have been willing to cut the company more slack as time goes on. That trend is easy enough to spot on this very site.
Well that's it. The trending online popularity survey tells me I'm driving the wrong car from an uncool company. My life is ruined! /s
The Visual Capitalist data IMHO is even more meaningless than JD Power's initial quality study - they don't parse all the data. Some random thoughts, in no particular order....
- on the surface, it looks like all luxury automakers are getting something wrong. My hypothesis: too much complicated touchscreen and software forced on the driver. Almost all of them are distracting, inefficient, and certainly not a joy to use. Bringing back mechanical or tactile controls for all often-used functions would garner more loyalty.
- this is a very short term view. do we expect that satisfaction is going to be high in a pandemic year when supply chains remain snarled? This has a greater relative effect on the more complex auto models, and Porsche in particular lost a boat full of cars. Many buyers have to shop around because they can't get their first choice in vehicle or brand or options package.
- this survey completely misses entire segments - a good portion of America is enthused with huge luxury pickups, and new models from Rivian, Hummer, etc are attracting attention which non-luxury nameplates like Ford, Chevy, and GMC are happy to sell you a >$100k land yacht with room for heliport on the back.
- if practically every luxury automaker is losing loyalty, does this mean that customers are flocking to lower cost cars due to macroeconomic or personal budget issues, or is Genesis, Maserati, and Tesla sponging up all the formerly unloyal customers? Or are buyers going to luxury automakers not on the list?
- why ask a new vehicle owner how happy he is with his new pride&joy within a few months of ownership, when his actual intention to buy a replacement vehicle may not be for several years, influenced perhaps by dealership service over the years as much as the auto itself?
- most owners care about the quality of their particular model, not an average across the entire brand. In modern business, brand managers care more about profitability than longevity of customer. Has loyalty ever been high?
- some users have a particular type of vehicle they buy. When an automaker like Buick or Lincoln cancels all its cars and goes all-SUV, it may lose some of its formerly loyal base. If Audi stops bringing its affordable luxury Avant wagons to North America, what will wagon enthusiasts do?
- measure of likelihood that a customer will return to the same mfr for their next vehicle, is inherently biased by the customer's limited knowledge of what vehicle models will be available in the future. For example, as Porsche and Audi increasingly promote their EV development, there are a number of former enthusiasts who think, right or wrong, that they may not want to be "forced" into an electric powertrain ... or vice versa.
- high end car companies like Porsche have extremely discriminating customers
- Tesla, Maserati, and Genesis are the loyalty winners only if you look VERY short term
- J.D. Powers does a very poor job categorizing problems - of the problems per vehicle, how many were easily corrected cosmetic issues, and how many were major design flaws? Why would anyone attempt to equate them???
- How is it possible Land Rover remains in business when it is perennially low ranked in quality and repeat buyers? They must have genius salespeople getting new suckers to take the plunge on famed English SUV quality.
One could go on, but you get the point. Industry averages with poorly parsed data won't aid a vehicle buyer nor manufacturer better understand the marketplace. A wise buyer evaluates all options before any major purchase. These days loyalty to corporations is silly. Most people buy what they think they need from whoever is selling at the time, with very little thought to long term relationship to a company.
08-15-2022, 10:04 AM
By 2020, when my Macan S was built, Porsche had already fallen to 186.
