the data of indivdual cars are weighted by the percentage of sales they comprise of the overall sales in the brand. its one of the most respected surveys in the auto industry. stop getting acting so bitter just because mazda is not at the top.

 

Its supposed to be tongue IN cheek...not tongue OUT of cheek...

Gawd..

 

Yeah, out of about the 940 Mazda owners surveyed, about 35 of them would be RX-8 owners..

Has ANY RX-8 or MAZDA owner or ANY car owner for that matter ever been surveyed by JDP about their "Dependability" survey....

What questions are asked, how many are there, and what is the format?

 

The fact of the matter is there are very few unreliable cars made today, this goes across the board. Now these surveys typically include things like cup holders functioning properly, squeaks, rattles, all kinds of things that do not directly relate to a car being mechanically reliable, as well as mechanical issues. The best advice is to not take any survey as gospel since they all have flaws in sampling and even relevant questions. Drops such as Porsche can be explained by people that have never owned a Porsche before buying a Cayenne and not liking the way the windows roll down, it sounds crazy but it is what happens, you get people just like with the RX-8 that have never owned a rotary car and think oil consumption is a problem. These are the kind of things that come up on these surveys, do they have anything to do with the real reliability of a car, no they do not but as I first stated there really is no such thing as an unreliable car these days, just perception.

 

This makes me laugh... This is the first Mazda I have ever owned and I have only owned it for 6 months. I am hardly a fanboi of Mazda. My point... which you didn't even address... is that the surveys are bought and paid for... they use lousy statistical practices... and the total survey data is far too small... Ash pointed all of this out very well and I was agreeing with him. Don't mistake accurate cynicism for uninformed bitterness.

 

Just goes to show what a crock of **** these JDP surveys are..

The fact that the power window has an unusual action, or that the Mazda rotary uses oil has NOTHING to do with Dependability or Reliability...it is how the manufacturer designed/made the car for engineering purposes and that the average car owner could never comprehend why.

I will repeat...apart from the US Mazda 6, all other Mazda's come from the same plant as the Mazda's sold in Germany, but, Germany's JDP has Mazda at #1 above ALL other brands including M Benz, AUDI, Porsche, BMW.

 

i think "market forces" are at work.

 

and while it wasn't the most

I keep saying, I owned a 2000 Buick Regal GS and while it wasn't the most stylish car, and didn't handle for crap, it didn't give me 1 problem the whole 3 1/2 years I owned it. Now the Buick marrque may not be prestigious in the US anymore but I owned 1 and compared with the amount of money I've put into my 8, the Buick was a Lexus.

 

hmmm who to believe? some random guy on the internet giving hes oppinion or a large scale survey conducted by one of the largest surveying companies in the world.


go buick

 

So why is the German survey more authentic than the US version? I agree with you that there are a lot of stupid people out there. I don't doubt that stupid people are skewing the number of problems quite a bit. However, I don't see how that invalidates this survey since it's quite likely that all cars are affected the same way by stupid people. There are just as many idiots driving Mazda's as there are driving Nissan's. At some point we have to go with the law of averages and say, for the average person, this particular car has this many problems.

Personally, I don't see how anyone at all can spend a lot of time on this forum and not realize that the RX-8 has issues. The average person on this forum appears to me to quite a bit more mature than the average car forum member. Given that's the case I'd expect them to be more responsible than average and thus, when someone posts about a problem here, MOST of the time it seems to be a legitimate gripe.

And keep in mind that MNAO pulled the RX-8 out of dealer's satisfaction indexes (or whatever it was called) and that had nothing to do with some JDP survey. Perhaps American driving behaviors or American climates exposed manufacturing problems that other countries haven't seen. Who knows. But in the end I'm not ready to write off a survey just because it doesn't match up with some other survey from another country.

 

This wasnt a "dependabilty survey" it was a bloody satisfaction survey! It relies on the lay person to describe "problems". Is there any chance they vet the described problems? doubt it. So anyone can write anything. Unfortunately the Recall staticstics also aren't the best indicator as they are only saftey related issues. Things like engine mounts, undersized battery and starter motor, etc would not be included in that and IMHO should be.

 

I actually would consider the production/recall statistics ASH8 posted a decent depiction of how well the overall product quality of a car company's vehicles is the past few years. So much for the 'perceived' Honda and Nissan quality and reliability. Remember a NHTSA recall is a SERIOUS defect that has a high potential of causing passenger safety hazard. I can't believe Honda and Nissan has so many recalls.

and good job Mazda from building safe cars right off of the factory lol.

 

Obviously these studies are meaningless to most of you because you have hardened beliefs for each manufacturer. Most of you domestic bashers probably base your conclusions of domestic inferiority on someone else's experience or your own back the 90's. I have leased and owned both imported and domestic cars in my life and in my experience they have been the same with regards to reliability. Some of my domestics have had problems and some have not.......same is true for the imports I've had. Hell, within the last 2 years I've had a Mazda RX8 and a Mustang GT.......the Mustang has had far fewer problems. Would I claim that Ford is better than Mazda in reliablity based off my experience?.....No.

It's irresponsible and ignorant to paint each brand with such a broad brush. Forget what you think you know and test drive everything within your market segment with an open mind........you might just surprise yourself.

 

We are, of course, shaped by our experiences. And for some of us our perceptions go way further back than the 90's, and extend to the present. I confess: I do have a belief that domestics are - for the most part - inferior to many foreign makes. This is based on domestic vehicles I have owned and presently own. It's also based on those many cars that I have rented while away on business. Just climbing behind the wheel of a Ford or Chevy in the rental agency's lot is terribly depressing in comparison to a comparable Nissan or Honda.

It's true that anecdotal evidence derived from individual experience is far from scientific proof of a given make's quality, but when most folks seem to share similar experiences you have to consider the likelihood that there where there is smoke there is fire. Your experience with the domestics you owned being as reliable as your imports has not been my experience at all. With the exception of the Durango I presently own, I have been desperately happy to rid myself of every domestic that I ever owned or leased. Even the Durango, whose drive train has been generally satisfactory, has had lots of stupid quality control and design issues, and one potential safety issue (seat belt tensioners) that the dealer could never remedy. The same is not true of the imports that I have owned or leased (except for the Renault Fuego - someone definitely slipped something into my drink the day I bought that thing ).

I believe that your reference to the domestic cars of today as opposed to those in the 90's is probably based on Detroit's commendable efforts to improve the quality, driveability and image of its vehicles - a refreshing change in attitude on its part. Unfortunately, what hasn't changed are the crushing health care and pension burdens, labor issues and other self-inflicted wounds that the domestic auto industry suffers from, and which will continue to hamper their efforts to move forward and compete on a level playing field with the better import manufacturers.

I don’t consider myself a domestic “basher”. I’d love to see Detroit put out vehicles that could stand toe to toe with the better import manufacturers, but they’re not there yet and some of us have received enough sharp sticks in the eye for the time being.