Monster Beats Limited Edition etc. 4R

by manbeats228 on 2012-03-09 11:25:41

The investigation into vehicle failure rates and maintenance costs has gathered results from 1324 owners, providing insights into the quality and maintenance costs of 30 car models. Which cars offer superior quality? Which ones incur high maintenance costs? And which repair stations provide excellent service? To answer these questions precisely for drivers, an exclusive study was conducted on vehicle failure rates and maintenance costs. In early May, this newspaper initiated a month-long supervision of maintenance service quality. The comprehensive investigation lasted nearly two months, collecting a total of 1324 valid samples. Last Wednesday, the newspaper held a survey conference attended by Chengdu's mainstream car dealer marketing managers and Western representatives of automobile manufacturers, where the findings were announced. Simultaneously, the newspaper issued letters of appointment to 14 owner representatives, chosen from 600 owner supervisors. Now, this mass of 600 owner supervisors has begun their duties, with the vehicle failure rate and maintenance cost survey set to continue for an extended period.

Today, we present this comprehensive investigation report, ranking the 30 models involved based on Chengdu's automobile market sales in 2009, covering domestic cars, SUVs, MPVs, and imported vehicles. Due to different model listings at various times, differences in car ownership duration, frequency of use, and mileage, for fairness, this survey analyzed the total mileage accumulated by surveyed models and compared the number of failures per ten thousand kilometers, a common and scientific indicator reflecting the reliability of different models.

Japanese cars overall performed well in this survey, while European and American cars, Korean cars, and independent brands need further improvement. Among the five models with the lowest failure rate, aside from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the rest are Japanese cars. The top three positions are held by the Accord, Camry, and Teana. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class ranks fourth, followed by the Vios in fifth place. Out of the 30 models, nine have higher failure rates than average, none of which are Japanese cars, with four seats occupied by independent brands.

Survey results indicate that the main weaknesses of independent brands lie in external object attachments and electronic equipment, including key components like engines and transmissions, which do not show significant disadvantages. This confirms consumers' findings that independent brand auto parts, particularly electronic equipment, are the most perishable. Electronic equipment and accessories, exterior failures, and interior failures are focal points of three quality issues in cars, whereas steering systems and air conditioning systems exhibit the lowest failure rates.

Overall, European and American cars slightly have a higher proportion of electronic equipment attachment failures, for example, Lavida and New Bora, Chevrolet Lova, Buick Excelle, Polo, and Fox. Their electronic equipment attachment failures account for the highest proportion of all faults in the car. However, independent brand performance is more dispersed, with the highest exterior failure rate; in high-end cars, interior objects have a higher failure rate. Experts state that European and American cars, especially European cars, have a high degree of electronic and electrical system complexity, rigorous craftsmanship, and solid materials, so in contrast, the electrical equipment and attachment failure rate is higher. Mainly due to instrument display abnormalities, sound, lighting, electric seats, and electrical equipment.

Taking the Polo as an example, the average number of faults per million km is 1.77, relatively high among models at the same level. Car failures are mainly concentrated in three aspects: electronic equipment attachments, transmission, and automotive interior objects, namely, 0.55/10,000 km, 0.52 times/million km, 0.28/10,000 km, accounting for 31.5%, 29.6%, and 16.0% of all car faults respectively. Independent brand quality problems are more dispersed, with external faults being the most frequent. The main issues include paint quality, difficulty opening and closing doors, trunk lids, hoods, or improper closure, door locks malfunctioning, external trim falling off, leakage problems, body corrosion, and vehicle chassis corrosion. Relatively speaking, the chassis and engine performance are relatively stable. It reflects that A3, Chery, Geely Vision, Great Wall Hover, and other brand new generation models primarily face exterior fault issues. In fact, these three cars perform more maturely in mechanical and electrical terms. If they solve their sloppy luxury car interior facilities and meet the higher quality requirements of vehicle owners, the risk of internal object failure levels will be higher than other models. Moreover, high-end models perform well in all other respects, making occupants more sensitive to internal quality.

Mainly reflected by owners are abnormal sounds of car parts, poor texture or malfunctioning of some car interior parts. Issues such as ashtrays, handles, electric windows, and other parts are frequently reported. Owners of Camry, Audi A6, Mercedes-Benz E-Class reflect these issues more.

After-sales satisfaction of Japanese and South Korean car owners is the highest. This activity simultaneously surveyed the after-sales satisfaction of car owners, showing that overall satisfaction among vehicle owners is high, with Japanese and South Korean car owners being the most satisfied. 76.6% of the owners expressed very satisfied or satisfied with the quality, only 2.5% indicated dissatisfaction. The remaining owners chose average. The survey shows that the satisfaction rate (including very satisfied and satisfied) for the top three models are Japanese and Korean models: Kia Sportage (95.0%), Tiida/Tiida (89.8%), and Kekai (89.7%). Comparing with the failure rate rankings reveals that the after-sales satisfaction of owners and vehicle failure rate levels are not entirely consistent. This indicates that although there are differences in failure rates, severity, and maintenance costs, owners' expectations for vehicle quality vary.

Viewing the Sportage failure rate survey results reveals that its main faults are in exterior and interior objects, with significantly lower failure rates in electrical equipment, engine, transmission, braking, and steering compared to other models, thus resulting in relatively high satisfaction. Buick’s overall failure rate is very low, ranking sixth with a high degree of satisfaction, which is reasonable. Curiously, despite having the lowest failure rate among the top three, models like Accord, Camry, and Teana did not rank highly in terms of maintenance cost satisfaction. This may be related to estimated maintenance costs. Additionally, since these three models are competitors at the same level with similar failure rates, their quality does not reflect a clear advantage within their class. Consequently, vehicle owners’ high expectations have not been fully met, leading to average after-sales satisfaction. Models at the forefront of satisfaction generally exhibit significantly lower failure rates within their class, making owners realize through comparisons that maintenance costs are much less, resulting in psychological satisfaction.