After steady year-on-year improvement, Ford has plunged from fifth position in 2010 to 23rd in the 2011 Initial Quality Study released by J.D. Power & Associates on Thursday. Lincoln, the luxury subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company, was ranked eighth last year, but fell to 17th this year.
The rankings, however, belie the automaker’s sustained manufacturing quality, the survey authors noted.
Primarily, the steep decline was attributed to consumer complaints about MyFord and MyLincoln Touch, the company’s in-car telematics systems that use a touch screen, dashboard display and voice commands presumably to help drivers operate radio and climate controls, as well as the navigation system.
Many in the automotive press, including The Times, have been critical of the system’s complexity. Consumer Reports said the “aggravating design” was one reason it could not give the Ford Edge its coveted designation of “Recommended.”
The initial quality study by J.D. Power examines vehicles during the first 90 days of ownership. This year, it was based on responses from more than 73,000 owners and lessees of new vehicles from the 2011 model year.
Vehicle owners were asked whether they had any of 228 possible problems, which included mechanical defects and malfunctions as well as design issues like the controls’ ease of use in categories like exterior, engine/transmission and audio/entertainment/navigation.
The study then graded automakers on the number of problems per 100 vehicles — the lower the number the fewer problems and the higher the initial quality rating. Over all, Lexus garnered first place in the study’s brand rankings. Rounding out the top five were Honda, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, and Mazda and Porsche in a tie for fifth.
In the 2010 ranking, when it placed fifth, Ford had 93 problems reported per 100 vehicles. That ratio has increased to 116 problems per 100 vehicles this year.
“They had a really good quality story,” said David Sargent, vice president of global vehicle research at J.D. Power, in a telephone interview. “They were progressing steadily year over year, and everything was going fine.”
“Consumers are looking for these touch technologies in vehicles and Ford took the, let’s say, brave decision to be a leader in this area,” he added.
But no good deed goes unpunished. Consumers complained that the system was not as intuitive to operate as they would have liked, while also airing their displeasure about the hands-free, voice-activated operations.
When asked whether there were other problems that contributed to Ford’s fall, Mr. Sargent said MyFord Touch was the primary driver, but “there were a few other things which together would add up.”
He would not elaborate on what those were, as none of the problems were significant enough to discuss in detail, he said.
There is some good news for Ford, however. In the realm of manufacturing defects and malfunctions, Ford “continues to perform pretty well,” Mr. Sargent said. “What we are witnessing here essentially has nothing to do with manufacturing,” he said.
What befell Ford this year echoes the experience of BMW in the 2006 survey. When J. D. Power redesigned the survey to add more questions about design problems, BMW performed poorly because its new iDrive interface system received significant criticism, yet its manufacturing quality was on a par with that of Toyota.
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