A few months ago I provided my initial impressions of the Hyundai Genesis. I concluded that the specs were impressively competitive, but that the car didn’t bring anything new to the game aside from a low price. Last week I finally found the time to take a Genesis for a test drive, and found that the large sedan drives very… More →
Month: August 2008
Changes in the most popular price comparisons
It’s been six months since I last updated the list of the most popular price comparisons. Why so long? Partly because I’ve been buried in other work for the site. But also because it rarely changes much from one month to the next. Go six months, though, and you’ll see a few changes. The top five comparisons are now all… More →
GM Employee Pricing sale
GM started a new “employee pricing for everyone” sale today, and it will run through at least September 2nd. I still had the formula to calculate GM’s employee prices laying around from the last time this sale was run, three years ago. So, with a few tweaks, it’s now on the site, making TrueDelta the only non-GM site I’m aware… More →
ACSI: the perils of satisfaction surveys
Today the Detroit News reported on the latest results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, specifically the fact that Detroit brands did worse this time around and ranked near (or at) the bottom. Claes Fornell, the professor who heads the study, noted, “The gap is extending. Detroit is falling. It’s all foreign at the top and all American at the… More →
Milestones reached with the August results of the Vehicle Reliability Survey
The results of the Vehicle Reliability Survey will be updated next week. Actually, members have been able to view provisional results for about a month now, but next week they’ll be 99 percent finalized (a few very late responses or corrections might still trickle in) and be publicly released. A number of milestones have been reached with this release: Total… More →
“Deterioration” in J.D. Power
Another bit from J.D. Power’s press release for their 2008 Vehicle Dependability Study: “on average, customers report experiencing 75 percent more problems in the third year of ownership than during the first 90 days.” They refer to this increase in reported problems as “quality deterioration.” One big problem with this logic: the VDS covers an entire year, while the IQS… More →
Are we facing an epidemic of incurably foggy windows?
J.D. Power released the results of its annual Vehicle Dependability Survey today, and one item has me scratching my head. They report that the fifth most commonly reported problem is “excessive window fogging.” I’ve personally reviewed about 8,000 repair reports submitted by TrueDelta’s panel members over the last few years, and cannot remember a single report of “excessive window fogging.”… More →
When a brand new car has problems
These days, just about any new car has a chance of going a year or two without a single problem. But there’s also the chance with any new car that it will have a problem the dealer just can’t sort out, at least not right away. Especially if it’s a new design in its first model year. What to do? Most… More →