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Surprise: initial results of TrueDelta's reliability research

5K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  mkaresh 
#1 ·
I will not have official results for the Acadia until August. However, I will be including the Acadia and Outlook among this month's "unofficial" results. The surprise is that until this week I didn't expect to have any results at all.

With 33 owners reporting for a total of 53 months of ownership, the repair trip rate is 0.9 repair trips per year. This is worse than the average of about 0.6, but pretty typical for a Detroit product, especially one in its first year.

This stat only includes trips with successful repairs. Recalls and unresolved problems are not included. Reflashes also aren't included. The Acadia and Outlook have quite a few recalls and reflashes.

Based on the responses so far, it's not possible to provide a precise estimate, but first-year reliability clearly isn't stellar or abysmal. Average for a domestic.

Among the problems reported so far:
--leak where transmission joins engine
--wipers became inoperable in middle of snow storm
--bad engine control module
--headlights aimed way too high

I have a similar amount of data on the 2007 Acura MDX. A few repair trips have been reported for the MDX--perhaps 1/4 of the total reported for the Lambdas--but all of them are excluded from the analysis for one reason or another.

Much more solid results for both in August.
 
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#2 ·
I have a hard time with the "headlights too high" in regards to repairs. I think those are a matter of preference and not a "repair". They are dictated how far they must beam. If those numbers were taken out, what would the average number be?
 
#3 ·
Perhaps I should have been a part of the study to bring the numbers down.

I have not had any major complaints or issues. Been very happy with my purchase.
 
#4 ·
The owner reported that other people were frequently flashing their brights at them--and worse--thinking they had their brights on when they did not. From the full description the vehicle was clearly delivered with the headlights improperly aligned. And if the factory isn't properly aligning headlights, it can be a sign that other aspects of the assembly process aren't as thorough as they ought to be.

Without this issue, the rate would be 0.7. With a sample size this small 0.7 isn't significantly different from 0.9, and would still be a bit above the average.

An even larger issue than the sample size is that most of the vehicles in the panel are very new. Some have gone into the shop and had parts ordered. My analysis doesn't currently include the repair until it is complete, so these also don't show up yet.

Based on the overall pattern of responses I'm seeing, I suspect that the stat in August will be in the 0.8 to 1.2 range. But there's a very good reason I'm calling these results "unofficial:" there's very little data at this point. Time will tell.
 
#5 ·
Rufio said:
Perhaps I should have been a part of the study to bring the numbers down.

I have not had any major complaints or issues. Been very happy with my purchase.
It's never too late to join. The larger the sample the more precise the results will be.

That said, an extra problem-free vehicle or two would have no impact on the results. As is, 88 percent of those signed up have reported no problems that meet the criteria for the analysis. With just 1.6 months of data on the average vehicle, this extrapolates out to nearly a repair trip a year.
 
#6 ·
Also WRT Rufio...

I notice you say "major" complaints or issues. TrueDelta's survey collects data on anything that was reported to a repair shop, unless its routine maintenance or a wear item. "Major" is too subjective. One of the big problems I have with CR is they have every respondent decide which problems are "serious" enough to be reported. This opens the door wide for bias.

So I'm trying to keep the survey as objective as possible. It's pretty clear whether or not the vehicle was in the shop, so that's what I'm focusing on.

The survey does include a few questions to distinguish major problems. But these are rare for all vehicles.
 
#8 ·
I am afraid if I was to join it would bring the numbers up even worse. With the seat issue needing three trips total to fix, and now my light switch being smashed in rather easily, I will have had to go back to the service department five times in the first two months of ownership. Frankly, if this continues I will call the new $44,000 Acadia just another expensive piece of crap, just like the Denali I was disgusted with. Oh yeah, there are many wonderful aspects to the Acadia, but any more ticks and I will lose the love I have for my new car. So far my Acadia has spent over seven days total in the service department. Thats more than ten percent of the time I have owned it. Yeah I'm getting PO'd


I have to add that I fixed my light switch problem myself. The frustration level has subsided, and I now love my car again.
 
#9 ·
It's important to participate and simply report what happens, good or bad.

To make the results as objective as possible, people cannot report their entire repair histories on the main survey (there's a second survey for those who want to report repair histories). Instead, except for the month before joining, the survey only collects data going forward.

I should note that I'm currently only including successful repairs in the analysis. With the currently small sample sizes, unsuccessful repairs would distort the results, as some problems apparently elude a solution, and one problem on one vehicle that the dealer can't fix shouldn't heavily influence the results for a model.
 
#10 ·
While there is no question that every required repair represents another "ding" in the reliability door, I think there should be a special consideration or "awareness" that goes along with the first production run for a brand new design.

I expect that in a vehicle that was built "from scratch" using none of the major subsystems from previous models, there will be some tweaks required in the first models produced. However, I am excited to be supporting such an innovative design approach, and the results of this "new slate" approach are quite refreshing in spite of the fact that there will likely be one or two extra issues to be resolved along the way.

I am not suggesting that these repair records be ingnored, but since innovation comes at a cost, perhaps the statistics should include two other numbers as well:
a) Customer Satisfaction Index, and
b) Percentage of totally NEW components/subsystems in the vehicle.

It's easy to keep reliability figures stable by doing the same ol' thing, but when you have a happy customer in spite of a few first-model-year issues, THAT makes a statement!
 
#11 ·
I'm aware of no source of "% new parts." At any rate, my approach is that people are the best judges of what they'll personally like about a vehicle. If having something new appeals to them, they know what's new, and that factors into their personal calculations. I'm just trying to supply the bits of info they cannot obtain from a thorough test drive. I expect both to inform purchase decisions.

The reason I stress absolute stats so much is so people can make clear trade-offs. They might say, "The Acadia might require an extra repair trip in the first three years over Competitor X. But it's advantages in other areas outweight that for me." It's much harder to make such tradeoffs when all you've got are different colored dots. Are you trading off one extra repair? Five? Ten? With just dots to go on, many people assume that the differences are much larger than they actually are.
 
#12 ·
Although my Acadia has been trouble free other than the recalls I would rate the assembly quality only fair to good by todays standards. The paint is excellant, but the body fit is only average. Ten years ago the fit and finish would've been rated excellant, but the bar has been raised so high now that it now is just average. GM really needs to catch up with the imports in this regard.
 
#14 ·
Guys, if you have not signed up with http://www.truedelta.com and you own an Acadia, PLEASE DO SO NOW! It takes practically NO time to fill our the short survey each month and it provides an extremely valuable service to both shoppers and car builders. I have been participating in mkaresh's test since March. It took about 45 seconds to fill out the survey when I had the recall work done, it takes 5 seconds if you have no repairs that month. My hope is that every single owner here registers so that our issues get noticed, counted and collated into a single database to help insure these Lambdas get better, quickly! Like Michael said, the more owners that sign up, the more accurate the data will be.
 
#15 ·
Thanks, Admin.

Just one correction: most months a response is only required if you had a repair the previous month (the surveys always cover the previous month).

Otherwise, it's just an odometer reading the first month and then at the end of every quarter. So four times a year.

To prevent follow-up emails you can "check in" other months, but to do this all you have to do is click a link in the email, that's it.

TrueDelta updates results quarterly, so any issues will be apparent quickly, as will any improvements made by GM.
 
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