Fiat Chrysler Brands Get Poor Quality Grades

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 1:58AM EST · Published Oct 25, 9:10AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Fiat Chrysler Brands Get Poor Quality Grades — © courtesy of FCA US LLC

It is not unusual for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) brands to rank poorly in quality surveys. They took several of the bottom spots in the widely followed Consumer Reports Annual Car Reliability Survey.

Among 29 major brands, ranked on a 0 to 100 scale, Ram and Fiat had the bottom two spots with grades of 16 and 17 respectively. Chrysler ranked third from the bottom with a grade of 26. Dodge ranked next lowest with a grade of 28. Jeep posted a grade of 30, putting it in the 23rd spot. As a measure of how poor these grades are, Lexus topped the list with a grade of 86.

Among individual models, Fiat Chrysler also had problems. The Fiat 500L was listed among the 10 least reliable models:

Trouble spots Slipping or lock-up transmission, power equipment, drive system, in-car electronics

[nativounit]

The Ram 2500, part of the company’s full-sized pickup brand, also was among the least reliable models:

Trouble spots Steering vibrations, emissions controls and sensors, 4WD components, power equipment

Chrysler’s U.S. flagship brand also had a car on the list, the 200:

Trouble spots Slipping or lock-up transmission, rough shifting, drive system

And from Fiat Chrysler’s most successful division, Jeep, the Renegade:

Trouble spots Drive system, transmission, power equipment, radio

Through September, Jeep sales were up 12% to 797,106, which means the brand carries the parent on its back. Chrysler sales fell 22% to 186,497. Dodge sales were up 2% to 394,940. Ram sales rose 11% to 400,300. Fiat sales fell 18% to 25,009, which means it undersells the Dodge Dart model.

[wallst_email_signup]

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.