Jeep Reputation Hurt Badly in New Study

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 26, 6:28AM EST

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Among the brands that received “report cards” in a new Consumer Reports, Jeep posted a score that was the lowest among makers of cars and light trucks. Jeep received an average road-test score of 54, well below the industry average. Consumer Reports did not put one Jeep model on its recommended list of vehicles. The rating is a sharp blow to the Chrysler division that had hoped new models would allow it to compete in the SUV market.

Luxury brands dominated the top of the rankings, with Audi (road-test score 83), Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s (NYSE: HMC) Acura (79), Infiniti (80) and Mercedes (81) posted unusually well. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) (73) and General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Buick (74) were toward the middle of the pack.

The Jeep evaluation was devastating:

Average road-test score: 54

Reliability: Good

Recommended vehicles: None

Though the Grand Cherokee is a great performer, it’s unreliable. Older models are crude and outdated, and the new Cherokee isn’t that competitive.

And:

Jeep has a mix of spotty reliability and mediocre road-test results.

The Grand Cherokee, Jeep’s flagship, needs to do well to boost sales of the brand. Jeep promotes the Grand Cherokee as the “Most Awarded SUV Ever.” The Consumer Reports ranking undermines that claimed distinction considerably.

The new rating is the second blow to Jeep from Consumer Reports. In the research firm’s Car-Brand Perception Survey, Jeep ranked among the 10 worst.

If brand perception and data from major car research firms count for anything in the car buyer’s mind, the Jeep has received a setback from which it may be unable to recover for a very long time.

Methodology: Consumer Reports calculates each brand’s overall score using an equally weighted composite of its road-test scores and reliability scores for each model that the organization has tested and for which its subscribers have provided reliability data in its Annual Auto Survey. To be included, each brand needs at least three models for which Consumer Reports has test and reliability data.

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.