Are Chryslers Still Junk?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 16, 6:35AM EDT

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Chrysler has tried to rebuild its image under the management of Italian car company Fiat. The number three U.S. manufacturer even makes money. The issue that continues to nag the firm is whether anyone thinks that it makes good cars.

The University of Michigan Business School, American Society for Quality, and the CFI Group publish the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which shows that Chrysler models rank at the very bottom of the automobile industry.

Even worse news for Chrysler is that its rankings are slipping as time passes. A grade of 84 is mediocre in the ACSI research. Chrysler received at 76 for the second quarter, down from 80 in 2006 and 2008, a period during which the car company was basically on a respirator. The Jeep brand received a 79 for the last quarter, as did Dodge. The only other brand that ranked so low was Mazda, which barely sells a vehicle in the U.S.

Even cars aimed at the mid-priced part of the market did better than Chrysler. VW scored 84 and Buick 85. Luxury car brands did especially well. Cadillac and Lexus got grades of 87 — the top among brands on the ACSI list.

Chrysler has been the runt of the American car industry in terms of size and perceived product quality since Lee Iacocca retired. Objectively, Chrysler may make better cars now than it did before it emerged from Chapter 11. Many people just don’t think so.

Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.