The Nissan Qashqai is the most reliable car on the market, according to the British consumer organization Which. I’m not going to say “boring”. I say: Congratulations, Nissan drivers. I know how nice it is, reliable material. In December 2021 I bought a new car for the first time after two decades of young timers. An electric one, and nothing can go wrong with it. Delicious. For more than a year I have not had to go to the dealer once, while I maintain shuttles between the parking garage and the workshop with the old bricks in the basement.
But how much weight does reliability really weigh when choosing a car? Ok, in England the new Qashqai is selling like crazy. But according to statistics, feeling often wins out over reason.
The starkest piece of evidence is the JD Power Index, the highly regarded annual reliability survey by US consumer research firm JD Power. Last year, places 1 to 5 were occupied by Kia, Buick (woah?), Hyundai, Genesis and Toyota, respectively. Lexus, number one for many years, is at six. Scroll down a bit, because that’s where it gets really interesting. There you will find the top brands. BMW is fifteenth, Mercedes nineteenth, Land Rover is at the bottom with place 33. The new losers are the premium players with the greatest prestige and strongest appeal. I don’t know a journalist, including yours truly, who hasn’t swooned over the new Range Rover. If we had been rappers or football players from the journal, we would have collectively ordered one.
How will such a monument score at JD Power in a year or two? Well, the buyer literally doesn’t want to know that. Maybe he really doesn’t care. People with money suffer less from technical defects. If they occur, they are covered by the warranty. After repair, their new Range is still the most beautiful SUV on the planet. More importantly: Before the warranty has expired, they have a new one. The invoice is for the second-hand buyer. He is allowed to bleed with four and five-figure amounts for his premium misery. He will cut back on maintenance and let his precious possessions languish until his S-class or British sea container is ready for a one-way ticket to Albania. You hear those cars here on the street creaking and rattling predicting their doom.
The conclusion must therefore be; the more money people have, the less they care about reliability. They want their dream car, whatever the costs. I know the feeling. How I enjoyed the BMW 540d Touring that was in the garage here last week. The test car did 130,000 euros. Had I been in the market for such a car, I would have paid every penny bleeding with happiness. After me the deluge. I know exactly who will be driving it in fifteen years. Someone who breaks down after 3000 kilometers of rattling on the last maintenance invoice. But he does drive a BMW. Image is that strong.
On the other hand, the JD Power Index 2022 shows the creepy downside of this story for prestige brands. As new players find ways to win over the real car enthusiasts, they can turn the balance of power upside down. This process is already underway. That Kia and Hyundai, the latter brand also with its own couture brand Genesis, already lead the JD Power ranking says a lot. Even more so that in conversation with a colleague, after 70,000 trouble-free kilometers in his EV6 Kia fan for life, I admitted that I would no longer rule out a Korean as the next EV. It comes from an Alfa Romeo, I drive after a series of Mercedes and Volvo’s BMW. We love real cars immensely, and they almost always came from Europe.
My principles have been wavering for some time. When I entered the BMW dealer in search of a small EV, I had the intention in the back of my mind to take a look at a Kia Soul with the large battery pack. Objectively, that might not have been the better car so much as the better choice; more range, more space, faster loading. So why did it become the i3? Style, design. Zero regrets though. Masterful little car that lets me enjoy every kilometer. But now the Koreans are suddenly building cars that evoke a similar desire. That’s new. I liked the EV6, I was and am delighted with the Ioniq 5. I confess: my next EV could well be the Ioniq 6. Special and probably also reliable, the best of both worlds.
Curious about those top scoring Buicks now, by the way. Should we get back soon?
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl