Autoexpress Drivers Survey - Is Rated Top.

rayaans · April 28, 2015

It is a survey of people who drive a certain car and there opinion of it. If only 50 people or less completed the survey for the Lexus is300 and all rated it highly for seat comfort & reliability then I cannot see how that is meaningless well not completely meaningless.

If 500 people completed the survey for the Discovery and all rated it poorly for reliability that to isn't meaningless.

No where does it give the breakdown of how many entries each car received but there is a minimum.

I cannot say if the entries are true or biased apart from the one for the IS300 as I have one and generally agree with the ratings for it.

The next focus of the Auto Express (we want to sell more magazines) survey is the cars which scored the lowest. Probably a bit more relevant bs.

Ed

The IS had only been out a year and a half, reliability is perceived, even German cars dont have issues in the first year. It all after warranty

michaelH · April 28, 2015

Auto express ought to be more realistic as to the limited conclusions that can be drawn from of this survey. As others have said, it does not tell us which cars have the most or least comfortable seats or which are the most or least practical, of anything like that. The results are highly subjective. But that does not make it worthless. It does tell us something about what owners (OK, not all owners) think of their cars, and it serves as a reminder that although motoring journalists love or despise certain cars, owners may have different views.

To be fair to AE, they are not always negative about Lexus, and nor do they always put German cars top. They do however tend to be seduced by high performance cars. Something fast but impractical is more likely to get a five star rating than one that they see as 'dull but worthy'.

As to reliability, the Warranty Direct ratings may be more meaningful, although news items reporting on those ratings seem to conflate warranty claims with breakdowns and reliability, when it is more to do with potential costs of ownership. I made a couple of extended warranty claims on my old IS250 (or to be more precise, Lexus Leicester did that on my behalf), but none of my four Lexus cars has ever broken down on me.

capese21 · April 28, 2015

This is what the survey asks the driver to rate. This is how I would have scored my F-Sport had I been bothered to enter. Marks out of 10 (1 worst 10 best)

Reliability 10

Build Quality 9

Running Costs 9

Performance 7

Road Handling 8

Ride Quality 6

Ease of Driving 9

Seat Comfort 9

Practicality 7

In-car Tech 7

Ed

rayaans · April 28, 2015

This is what the survey asks the driver to rate. This is how I would have scored my F-Sport had I been bothered to enter. Marks out of 10 (1 worst 10 best)

Reliability 10

Build Quality 9

Running Costs 9

Performance 7

Road Handling 8

Ride Quality 6

Ease of Driving 9

Seat Comfort 9

Practicality 7

In-car Tech 7

Ed

But the problem there is, whats the difference between a 7 and an 8? Some people would put 8 down while others would put 7 down even if both thought the exact same thing.

capese21 · April 28, 2015

But the problem there is, whats the difference between a 7 and an 8?

Some people would put 8 down while others would put 7 down even if both

thought the exact same thing.

1.

Think of it like an exam, below 40% Fail, 40 to 59% grade D, 60% to 69% grade C, 70 to 79% grade B, 80 to 90% grade A ,91 to 100% A*. So for my scores the IS passes at grade B or above!!

Maybe time to stop analysing the antics of Auto Express me thinks

Edited April 28, 2015 by capese21

michaelH · April 28, 2015

Rayaan: Indeed. But that in itself not too much of a problem. If your car has been faultless so far and a pleasure to drive then you are not going to give it 3s and 4s all round. The general picture then will not be much different from Ed's. The greater concern must be the size of response per car, which if too small could lead to some results being skewed by just a few atypical responses (BMW 5 series near the bottom of the pile - really? what happened there?). They have included many more cars this time and that suggests the thresholds for inclusion must have been lowered quite a lot. But strange that there were still too few responses to allow entries for (e.g.) the Mercedes SLK or Smart coupe.

One last thing: you might give a car some very low scores for things that you don't really mind. or you might have different views as to what is meant by 'practicality'. If the big suburban or country dwelling family swap their huge seven seater people carrier for the single city-dweller's Smart coupe, both parties might end up regarding their new cars as impractical.

So enjoy the survey, and the Lexus successes, but take it all with a pinch of salt.

Dr. Mark · April 28, 2015

I am not surprised the mk3 has done well. I had a mk2 IS220d and upgraded to an ex-demo IS300h F-Sport last September and it is an awesome car. My wife loved our 220d and she has now forgot the old car and is a total convert to the mk3. It is so sedate to drive and yet it comes to life in sport mode.

I had to pick a colleague up and take them to a meeting 2 weeks ago and she mentions the car, the ride and how nice it was and when I said it was a Lexus, she replied "Oh, I thought it was a BMW". Not only was I a bit hurt, I did wonder whether she had noticed the big 'L' in the centre of my steering wheel! At least it was seen as equivalent, but in my mind, it is mich more and something that turns heads still unlike the more ubiquitous German counterparts. My colleague wasa University Professor befor you ask, so it is clear Lexus need to push their brand more with their potential market. However, I am torn over this point because I am happy to be one of those who used chose Lexus. To turn full circle and back to my wife, our first 220d was her choice as an alternative to an Avensis; thank you my wife!

I am so happy to continue to be a Lexus owner.