Fiat Chrysler Brands Get Lowest Ratings in Quality Survey

Cars and Drivers

Published: July 23, 2015 6:37 am

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) took a major beating in the carefully followed J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study. The poor marks the company’s products have received in this and other studies have not undermined sales significantly — except, probably, for Fiat.

Four of the 10 worst-rated brands in the study belonged to Fiat Chrysler. On a per-thousand measure scale, the average non-luxury brand received a score of 790. The worst-rated Fiat Chrysler brand was Fiat, which received a score of 749, followed by Jeep at 763, Chrysler at 788 and Dodge at 795.

In the first half of the year, Fiat sales fell 13% to 21,798. Chrysler brand sales rose 21% to 170,248. Jeep sales also were higher by 21%, to 401,689, driven mostly by Cherokee sales. Dodge sales slipped 16% to 257,142, mostly because of a drop in Caravan sales. Overall for the year, sales for the entire company were higher by 6% to 1,082,143.

The success of Fiat Chrysler is spread across many cars and light trucks. The only vehicle it had in the top 20 selling vehicles for the first half of 2015 was the Jeep Wrangler, which sat in 19th place, with sales up 20% to 19,159. By contrast, the best-selling car or light truck in the United States for the same period was the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) F-Series at 357,180.

Fiat Chrysler’s market share in the United States for the first quarter rose to 12.4% from 12.0% in the first half, an impressive performance given the horrible perception of its cars.

J.D. Power Methodology for the 2015 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study:

The APEAL Study, now in its 20th year, is the industry benchmark for new-vehicle appeal, examining how gratifying a new vehicle is to own and drive. Owners evaluate their vehicle across 77 attributes, which combine into an overall APEAL Index score that is measured on a 1,000-point scale. The overall APEAL score has increased by 4 points year over year to 798 in 2015.

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