…is JDPower more reliable than Republican pollsters?…
JDPower’s latest quality survey reports a gradual (but over time substantial) improvement in vehicles sold in the US, averaging 126 customer-reported defects per 100 vehicles, versus 216 for 2007. That recent vehicles are better than those of a decade ago matches casual observation of new and used cars. But JDPowers also reports numbers by brand, resulting in a ranking widely reported by the media and (when the rank is high) echoed in advertising. (See for example the Feb 13 story in Automotive News.