[SP330]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/17/auto...ion=2006112009

"The JD Power Initial quality study for 2006 models, which measures defects identified by customers during the first 90 days of ownership, put Mercedes at 25th out of a field of 37 brands. That was well behind leaders like Porsche, Toyota's (Charts) Lexus, Jaguar, GM's (Charts) Cadillac and Infiniti, though still two notches ahead of BMW. "

[E36_325i]

A bit confused...is this indicating that MB is 2 notches ahead of BMW for initial quality? If so then thats really bad.

[TommyBahama]

so bmw is 29 out of 35? how the hell did they lose out to Cadillac? my family has had 7 caddys and all of them had more problems then our bmws

[Carnage]

I could be wrong but I believe that MB and BMW have two different problems when it comes to "defects". MB's are related to bigger issues like car not running correctly, etc. BMW's are more based on issues customers have with all the "Star Trek" stuff BMW is trying to cram into the car lately.

[ward]

the poll includes "design" complaints

like when an old person buys a car with idrive, that's a knock on the brand.

[Carnage]

Originally Posted by ward

the poll includes "design" complaints

like when an old person buys a car with idrive, that's a knock on the brand.

Good point. I think the trouble people are having trying to figure idrive, bluetooth, etc. out is a big driver of BMW's "issues".

[SP330]

That's the main complaint among a vast majority of owners/editors.

They dont read the manual then get pissed because they can't figure out i-drive. It isn't even that hard i was comfortable with it in the E60 I imagine the e90 and new E60 updated versions to be better.

[Jaws]

Initial quality is a joke. Durability (1 year, 5 years...) is a better measuring stick.

[GregL]

This has always been a very subjective study. Alot of it has to do with people's definition of defect; someone who buys the lowest entry-level barebones BMW as a first car for example will more than likely find fault with any tiny little thing that goes wrong, while a senior who has been driving for the past 5 decades will find their new Cadillac the best car he/she ever owned. The latter will not identify certain "characteristics" as defects as the car is probably leaps and bounds better than what they owned last.

Also, the more money an individual pays for his/her vehicle, the higher the general expectation, so a hood that doesn't perfectly line up with the grille may seriously tick off a Mercedes owner while a Mazda owner for example might not care less about little things like that.