Healthy drop in new vehicle problems

More than 55,000 vehicle owners are interviewed each year and the survey has extensively been used by the manufacturers for more than thirteen years as the benchmark of vehicle quality.

As the largest survey of its kind in the South African market, strong focus is placed on Product Quality measurement, which is commonly known as Problems per 100 Vehicles (PP100).

Quite literally this survey measures the number of problems new car owners experience with their vehicles in the first few months of ownership. This means that in this survey, a lower score equates to a better result.

“As a whole, the industry has again performed remarkably well,” said Richard Rice, Client Services Director at Synovate.

“The problem count on passenger vehicles has decreased from 117 problems per 100 vehicles to 103 problems. This is the lowest score since the survey began in 1992. It is also a very probable indicator that by this time next year, product quality will have improved to such an extent that on average there will be less than one problem per vehicle purchased.”

The findings are as follows:

Passenger Car Category Awards - In the Best Local Plant Manufacturing Passenger Cars award, BMW shares the Gold award with Mercedes-Benz, with Toyota, which has dominated in the segment awards, has taken second place.

Best Luxury Car Brand Overall is also a tie between Mercedes-Benz and BMW, followed by Volvo.

Best Volume Passenger Car Brand Overall went to Toyota, with Chevrolet second and Renault in third.

The award for the Best Local Plant Manufacturing Light Commercial Vehicles is shared by Toyota and Isuzu / Opel, with only one problem per 100 separating the two. Toyota scores 93 PP100 while Isuzu / Opel come in with 94 PP100. Mitsubishi takes second place.

Best One Ton Diesel Light Commercial Vehicle Overall: Again Toyota and Isuzu tie for first place with problem counts of 103 and 113 respectively. Nissan maintains its position in second spot with a problem count of 156 PP100.

Best One Ton Petrol Light Commercial Vehicle went to Toyota, with Isuzu and Nissan following in second and third position respectively.

Best Overall LCV Brand is a tie between Opel and Toyota, with PP100 scores of 85 and 94 respectively. Isuzu is in second place with 109 problems per 100 vehicles.

Passenger Car Entry Segment: Toyota Yaris T1 takes first position with a very low 32 problems per 100 vehicles, whilst the Ford Ka shares second spot with Chevrolet. A score of 32 PP100 implies that two out of three vehicles are problem free and one third of vehicles sold have only one problem.

Small Hatch: The Toyota Yaris T3 and Opel Corsa (excluding Lite) share the Gold award in this segment. Last year's winner, the Chevrolet Aveo 5-door, takes second position. Scores in this segment are very close with only eight PP100 separating the top three brands.

Small Sedan: The Toyota Yaris Sedan maintains its Gold position in this segment with only 60 problems per 100, together with the Toyota Corolla 140i (62 PP100). The Chevrolet Aveo Sedan occupies second position in this segment.

Top Hatch: First position in this segment goes to the Mercedes-Benz A-Class with 77 PP100. The BMW 1 Series (excluding Cabriolet) takes second position and the MINI Cooper is in third position with 95 PP100.

Top Sedan: The Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 tie in first place with 88 and 92 PP100 respectively. The Renault Megane II Sedan makes an entry in this segment this year in second place with 99 PP100.

Medium segment: There is a three way tie for the Gold award in this segment, split between the Toyota Avensis with a low 55 PP100, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class petrol at 63 PP100 and the BMW 3 series with 64 PP100.

Top Executive: The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has produced an incredibly low problem count of only 28 PP100 and takes top position in this segment. The BMW 5 Series takes second position whilst the Mercedes-Benz E-Class is in third position with 52 and 66 problems per 100 vehicles respectively.

Sports Coupé: This is the most closely fought segment with only 3 PP100 separating the Gold award winners. The Mercedes-Benz CLK, BMW 3 Series Coupé / Cabriolet / M3 and Mercedes-Benz SLK share top position in this hotly contested part of the market. The scores range between 54 and 57 PP100 so there is very little separating the winners.

The MPV / Station Wagon segment sees little change with the same three models occupying the first three positions as in 2007. The Toyota Corolla Verso takes top spot with the Mercedes-Benz B-Class in second position and the Toyota Avanza in third.

The Small Recreational Vehicle segment sees some reshuffling with the BMW X3 moving to a tied first position with the Toyota RAV4. The Toyota Fortuner makes an appearance in second place in this year's ranking.

Large Recreational Vehicle: The Toyota Prado retains its leading position in the segment with a score of 41 PP100. The Land Rover Discovery enters in second place with a problem count of 57 and the Mercedes-Benz M-Class occupies the third spot with 72 PP100.

Light Commercial Vehicle Segment Awards Half Ton segment: Synovate Gold goes to the Opel Corsa Utility, retaining its 2007 position. The Ford Bantam and Nissan 1400 are in joint second position.

Petrol Single Cab: In this segment, the Isuzu KB is awarded the Gold with the Toyota Hilux and Nissan Hardbody taking second and third spots respectively. The fact that in this “workhorse” segment, scores between 70 and 80 PP100 are being achieved implies that manufacturing focus extends across the range.

Diesel Single Cab: This segment has three new podium winners this year. Toyota Hilux (TDI) and the Toyota Landcruiser Pickup are tied in first place, both with a problem count of 97 PP100. The Mitsubishi Colt occupies second spot with 107 PP100.

Petrol Double Cab: The Toyota Hilux takes Gold in this segment with a very low problem count of 63 PP100. Nissan Navara and Nissan Hardbody take second and third with 116 PP100 and 163 PP100 respectively.

Diesel Double Cab: The traditional competitors in this segment all feature again, with the Toyota Hilux and Isuzu KB tied in first position. The Nissan Navara takes second place.