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Manufacturer's Comments
Lex Vehicle Leasing gave all manufacturers the chance to comment
on the Lex Survey. Here are those comments... The Lex Report highlights certain issues on older models which have now been rectified. We can reassure customers that model reliability has increased significantly and indeed the latest Annual Which Car? report underlines this.  Jaguar achieves its high standard of customer care by listening and responding to its customers. The voice of the customers, via our own research data or from external sources such as Lex, is an essential element of our product development process. This has resulted in a high level of customer satisfaction in all our markets world-wide, as endorsed by objective market research agencies. It is difficult to comment in detail on the Lex survey without examining the data in more depth. Although the models in the survey are no longer in production, all will have been covered by Jaguar's comprehensive 3 years/60,000 miles warranty which was introduced in June 1992.  Mitsubishi Motors were judged the most reliable cars in Britain in last year's survey, with nearly half the number of breakdowns recorded by the likes of BMW and Audi. This year's result of just 5.8 breakdowns per 100 vehicles means Mitsubishi are once again the top performer.The Mitsubishi fleet covered by the Lex survey includes a few European-manufactured Carisma models which have spearheaded the marque's sales growth both in the UK and Europe, as well as the flagship Shogun range, the Space Wagon/Runner MPVs, the new Galant and the Colt Hatchback. Mitsubishi's vehicles, whether built in Japan or Europe, have always had a reputation for reliability through quality design and technology - and the results of the Lex Survey endorse the views of our customers. The build quality of our products is continually improving. In addition, to completely satisfy all our customers, we constantly monitor all defects experienced. We act immediately to resolve all such incidents in conjunction with our Engineering, Design and Production departments.  The 1998 survey indicates a relatively higher rate of mechanical incident during the N-registration year. This increase, which interrupts a continuous reduction in defect incidence, is due to specific known incidents. These have now been eliminated. At this time, all fifteen major incidents listed in your survey have been completely resolved as a direct result of the partnership mentioned above. In addition, we implemented processes to ensure that any vehicle potentially affected by a known defect is rectified during its next visit to our dealer network to prevent any possible mechanical breakdown.  It is very difficult to comment on these figures in isolation. There is no breakdown on performance of individual models, no information regarding maintenance programmes and no definition of the actual alleged fault. However, Lex Leasing is a long term valued customer of Rover Group and we look forward to receiving a much more detailed analysis.  The excellent quality and reliability of newer Saab models is reflected in a near halving of the MBPHV figure compared to last year and we expect such considerable improvement to continue as this report covers a rolling five year period. The more common problems now tend to be less serious or expensive to correct and also account for a much lower proportion of the total number of failures.  Vauxhall feels that the information supplied from Lex Vehicle Leasing is not detailed enough on specific concerns by model or engine variant, so it is simply not possible to give as full a comment as we would like to without more information. From the limited information, however, we can comment on two areas of concern: First the transmission in the 1.8 and 2.0 manual Vectras. Due to the large volume of sales, this has caused the defects per thousand vehicles to increase very slightly. As you are probably aware, the gaskets were incorrectly installed by our supplier, which caused very slight oil seepage. All vehicles were built before May 1996, and therefore were some of the very earliest examples. Their owners have been contacted directly by Vauxhall or through our retailers. We can confirm that we have had no failures since this problem was resolved. Second, we have had difficulties with double overhead cam engines in Corsa, Tigra and Astra - on engine types X14XE, C16XE, X16XE and X16 XEL. The tensioner roller idle pulley may fail in a certain engine chassis range. All customers have been contacted directly to ask them to bring their vehicles back in for a remedial check, and the work will be carried out on a free of charge basis. Again, because of the large volumes of vehicles involved, this may well have put defects per hundred vehicles slightly higher than last year's figures. |
