Read 'em and weep. The Automobiles section of today's NYT has a chart of the 2007 Initial Quality Study by J. D. Power, presented as the number of problems per 100 vehicles. Porsche led the list at 91; the industry average is 125; our make came in below that, at 133, tied with Pontiac, Saab, and Subaru, and behind Buick and Chevrolet. Gee, what company to keep.
Sure, we all delight in our favorite set of wheels, and display an intense loyalty, but a ranking like that is an embarrassment. I don't know where the problems lie, whether in the over-the-top iDrive, the assembly, the materials, whatever, but if Porsche made to #1 for the second year in a row, and Mercedes climbed from 20th to 6th, then what has BMW been doing to lag behind the rest of the industry?