Infotainment glitches haunt automakers in Consumer Reports' reliability survey

October 27, 2014 01:00 AM

Infotainment hiccups nagged the industry in the Consumer Reports 2014 Annual Auto Reliability Survey, while problems with the Q50 caused Infiniti's ranking to plummet.

“The common issues from past CR surveys included unresponsive touch screens, or a reluctance to pair phones,” the magazine said in a statement. “While those issues remain, this year’s survey finds they have been joined by other problems -- including multi-use controllers that don’t function properly.”

But there are signs that some manufacturers are turning a corner, notably the Ford and Lincoln brands, which have showed improvements with the maligned MyTouch systems. Ford and Lincoln ranked near the bottom of the survey the last two years, but both made sizable gains this year.

Overall, Japanese brands owned the top four spots and claimed six of the top 10 positions.

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Domestic brands Lincoln, Buick and Cadillac all showed significant improvement, but only one -- Buick -- made the top 10.

Lexus and Toyota claimed the top two spots for the second year in a row. Mazda placed third, moving up two spots from last year, while Honda ranked fourth after moving up four places.

Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports, said you have to look back to 2008 to see a chart that didn’t have Lexus or Toyota on top.

Why is Toyota so consistent?

Fisher said the manufacturer is conservative with its redesigns as opposed to Ford, for example, which isn’t shy about constructing new platforms, transmissions and electronics.

“It’s paid off for Toyota, being very conservative. Maybe not making the most exciting vehicle, but making sure the reliability is there,” Fisher said during an Automotive Press Association event today.

Audi rounded out the top five, dropping a spot from last year.

Buick finished sixth after moving up six spots, with all of its nameplates scoring average or better. The LaCrosse V6, in particular, shined enough to garner a Consumer Reports recommendation.

Subaru, led by its non-turbo Forester, grabbed seventh place with a three-spot jump in the rankings.

Toyota’s Scion brand also improved its positioning by three spots to rank eighth. Porsche, which shot up five positions to ninth place, and Kia, which had a six-spot gain, closed out the top 10.

In contrast, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands floundered among the bottom four spots in the rankings. Ram took the largest tumble out of the Fiat Chrysler marques, falling seven spots to 26th place after the Ram 1500 waned.

GMC, which fell from the top 10, lost 10 spots in the rankings mainly because of the redesigned Sierra 1500 pickup, dropping to 19th place.

Among European brands, Mercedes-Benz was the only one to take a significant plunge as it fell 11 spots to 24th place. It was weighed down by the newly introduced CLA and redesigned S class. Glitches stemming from redesigns and introductions often can hurt a brand’s ranking in the survey.

Domestic brands

GM was most reliable of the domestic brands, although it was 16 percent lower than the industry average. Ford’s reliability was 25 percent below average and Chrysler was well back, scoring 69 percent less than average.

Among GM brands, Consumer Reports recommended the V-6 Buick Lacrosse, Chevrolet Camaro, the V-6 Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Corvette and V-6 Chevrolet Impala.

For Ford, it recommended the Fusion (all powertrains), along with the Lincoln MKZ (four-cylinder EcoBoost) and its hybrid iteration.

For Chrysler Group, Dodge captured the only recommendations with the sporty Challenger sedan and Durango SUV. Fisher said the Fiat 500L was the survey's worst-performing vehicle.

Infotainment bugs

Infiniti's infotainment issues emerged in the new Infiniti Q50, which had a one-month delay in its launch in the summer of 2013 to make last-minute engineering changes.

More than one in five owners of the sedan reported problems with the InTouch system, Consumer Reports said. Those issues combined with the weak reliability performance of the QX60 SUV led to a 14-spot drop to 20th place, the steepest fall of any brand this year.

Acura was knocked out of the top 10 after losing eight spots. The premium RLX sedan was its worst-performing model.

“A couple of things happened with Acura. First of all, their infotainment system. There has been some trouble with that,” Fisher said. “[Then] they replaced the TL and TSX with the new TLX, so both of those vehicles are off of our data. We don’t have a history of the new TLX.”

While infotainment system problems plagued the industry once again, there were signs that companies are making the proper adjustments to improve in-vehicle experiences.

Consumer Reports says updates and changes to Ford and Lincoln’s often criticized MyTouch systems are making a positive impact. The systems aren’t perfect, but they’re accounting for fewer problems than in the past.

For instance, the 2011 Ford Explorer had a 10 percent infotainment complaint rate when MyFord Touch was introduced, with rates later peaking at 28 percent. The 2014 Explorer’s revised system, however, has a 3 percent complaint rate for the same trouble areas, Consumer Reports says.

Lincoln rises

Lincoln led all brands with a 12-spot improvement to land in 15th place, while Ford moved up three spots -- although it still finished in the bottom tier, with a 23rd-place ranking out of 28 brands.

Honda made a fix to its HondaLink infotainment system that was good enough for Consumer Reports to recommend the Accord V6, which didn’t happen last year because of a system glitch.

Are older buyers the driving force behind low infotainment ratings? Not necessarily.

“We found that younger people are more likely to say a system isn’t working,” Fisher said. “The reason is younger people are more likely to use those systems to the fullest.”

Consumer Reports said Tesla wasn’t included in the overall brand reliability rankings because it didn’t have at least two models to be ranked. The Model S received an average rating and kept its recommended vehicle status.

“Infotainment system problems generally don’t exist in a vacuum,” Fisher said in a statement. “A close look at the results suggests that cars with a lot of in-car electronic issues usually have plenty of other troubles, too.”

The Consumer Reports Annual Auto Reliability Survey polls its subscribers, who indicate any serious problems in 17 trouble areas that they have had with the cars they own in the preceding 12 months. Consumer Reports says it gathers enough data on 248 models to predict which new cars likely will be reliable or troublesome, as well as provide insights and standings of major brands and spot trends.

The survey is the largest of its kind, with the 2014 edition generating information from about 1.1 million vehicles.