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Eager to scoop up a brand-new, never-been-seen-before car model? Or how about the sleek, new redesign of a tried-and-true favorite? You may want to wait. A new study by J.D. Power and Associates found that a number of cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles redesigned for 2002 have more problems than the 2001 models they replaced. The new and supposedly improved Nissan Altima, Honda CRV, four-door Ford Explorer, Lexus ES 300 and Toyota Camry all did worse than their predecessors in an initial quality study, which tracks problems in a vehicle's first 90 days of ownership. "There's some cache in having the newest and the greatest. But along with that benefit there's the risk of working the kinks out of a car," says John Nielsen, director of AAA's Approved Auto Repair Network. "The good news is it's in warranty, so you don't have to pay for it." Glitches
after all these years Auto models that were redesigned for 2002 declined in initial quality by 2 percent, according to J.D. Power. Two
percent of trouble doesn't seem like a lot until you
consider just how
much better a vehicle is likely to be in its second
model year, when its quality
shoots up by 17 percent. Why
the big jump in quality? All the little kinks and problems
that come to
light in the first model year get fixed. You'll
get a higher quality vehicle when you wait for a hot,
new design to
enter its second model year. Being a patient car shopper can really pay off. "Look
for a model that has relatively few problems in the
first year and
buy it in the second year," says Clarence Ditlow, auto
author and executive
director for the Center for Auto Safety. Ditlow
has been urging buyers to steer clear of first-year
car models since
1970, when the first lemon book was published. "There's
never adequate testing to get rid of all the bugs,"
Ditlow
says. This is especially true of brand-new, never-been-seen-before models. "It
just takes a little while longer to get things running
smoothly,"
says Brian Walters, director of product research at J.D. Powers. "Many
times there are brand-new factories, totally new suppliers.
They're
starting from scratch for the most part." And
even though computer-assisted design has improved new-car
quality in recent
years, some problems don't come to light until the
cars are driven off a dealer
lot. Consumer guinea pigs "Sometimes
it's just fit and finish and minor details and it's
not that
big of a deal. But if it's 'Does it start? Does it
stop?' then it's a serious
problem." Just
look at the PT Cruiser. DaimlerChrysler is recalling
more than 460,000
PT Cruisers -- every one built for the vehicle's first
two model years -- because
of fuel-pump leaks. Why
don't auto manufacturers delay the launch of a new
model until every glitch
is ironed out? They're driven by money, just like every
other business, and
hot, new designs tend to be big sellers, bugs and all. "A
brand-new design tends to have more appeal than an
older design,"
Walters says. "Dealers tend to make more profits on
vehicles with high
appeal. Manufacturers have to spend less money on incentives
on vehicles with
high appeal." If
you can put up with a few kinks in your dream car,
go ahead and snap up
a hot new design as soon as it comes out. If
you're looking for the highest quality, most hassle
free ride, hold off
on your shopping for a year or so. "If
no trouble whatsoever is the most important thing to
you, you're much
better off in the second or third year," Nielsen says. |