JD Power Initial Quality Survey - 2004 versus 2014

I was wondering how much movement there is in the JD Power automotive Initial Quality Survey over longer periods.  I arbitrarily decided to compare todays results with those from 10 years ago just to get a look.

The 2014 IQS is on the JD power site but I found the 2004 IQS  at and old USA today article.

Here's the comparison from the 10 years :

	2014	2004	change
Porsche	74	159	-85
Jaguar	87	98	-11
Lexus	92	87	5
Hyundai	94	102	-8
Toyota	105	104	1
Chevrolet	106	119	-13
Kia	106	153	-47
BMW	108	109	-1
Honda	108	99	9
Lincoln	109	121	-12
Audi	111	109	2
Chrysler	111	120	-9
Cadillac	115	93	22
Mercedes-Benz	115	106	9
Volvo	115	113	2
Ford	116	130	-14
GMC	116	127	-11
Ram	116	121*	-5
AVERAGE	116	119	-3
Buick	120	100	20
Nissan	120	154	-34
Dodge	124	121	3
Land Rover	127	148	-21
Infiniti	128	104	24
VW	128	164	-36
Acura	131	117	14
MINI	133	142	-9
Subaru	138	123	15
Mazda	139	157	-18
Scion	140	158	-18
Mitsubishi	145	130	15
Jeep	146	136	10
Fiat	206	na

Now you can see that there are a lot of changes there.    Many brands when up or down quite a bit.  Overall the median change was -4 and the averages dropped 3.  So the general trend is down over the 10 years but individual brands are all over the place.

Wow, Porsche sure did turn around their quality!   They went from near bottom to the top.   Now you might be wondering how could that be?    Surely Porsche quality wasn't bottom of the industry just 10 years ago.   Well that brings us to an important thing about how the IQS works.      For that I will refer you to the Car & Driver article The Trouble With J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study. 
They explain that for the JD power Initial Quality Survey, the "quality" includes design features that people may or may not like.   So for example if you find the navigation interface confusing then you can get a poor quality result.   Thats a design deficiency but not exactly loose screws or squeaky breaks off the factory line.   When I think of car quality I think of defects in manufacturing where the car fails or breaks.  However the IQS survey also adds things like complaints about features.   For more detail on that read the Car & Driver article, also they show how the IQS numbers varied for a few brands over several years.    They also pointed out for 2011 that : "new and redesigned machines averaged 122 problems, and carry-over or lightly modified cars and trucks scored only 103 problems"   So newly designed cars with new and unproven features do worse. 

It would be better to look at multiple years of data and see how different car makers move up and down year to year over a longer period.    That would give a better picture.   Overall though I'd say the IQS should be taken with a grain of salt.   Its hard to know if makers are doing poorly due to new complex features or general quality failures.   I would say that if a car maker is typically at the lower quarter or typically in the upper quarter then thats a solid sign of their general quality.


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Rental Comp Data for August 2014

We've got a vacant rental right now and I went to do some research on rental comps in the area. 

I last reviewed rental comp prices in February 2014.

Here's what I found for current comps on Rentometer.com

	A	B	C	D	E
	2 bed	3bed	1bed	1bed	3bed
	house	house	apt	apt	house
10%	$737	$782	$377	$410	$926
20%	$821	$853	$411	$450	$1,012
median	$950	$1,025	$485	$565	$1,195
80%	$1,138	$1,120	$539	$603	$1,337
90%	$1,221	$1,190	$573	$643	$1,422
# prop	31	50	25	22	49
dist	0.5	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.5

and here's the trends :

	A	B	C	D	E
Nov-11	$895	$875	$495	$495	$1,095
Jan-13	$900	$995	$510	$460
Aug-13	$905	$925	$500	$480	$1,095
Feb-14	$985	$900	$485	$478	$1,097
Aug-14	$950	$1,025	$485	$565	$1,195
	-3.6%	13.9%	0.0%	18.2%	8.9%

Mostly up in the past half year which is good.     By the way I noticed I'd previously had the 'A' property listed as  3 bedroom but its actually a 2 bedroom.  Oops.    Thats the vacant property right now.   Unfortunately that ones on a small downward trend if the Rentometer data is accurate.   But I don't think its all that accurate.  Its a small sample in the  neighborhood and doesn't account for a variety of property factors like whether its a single family home or a basement apartment.   I'm doing more detailed research looking at current and recent listings on Craigslist and Trulia.   That will give me a better picture.


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4 Good Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

The four credit cards linked to below are worth about $400 in rewards (or more) if you spend $3000 in the first 3 months.  

Chase Sapphire Preferred
Bonus of 40,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
You can also get another 5,000 points by adding an authorized user.
Annual fee $0 the first year and $95 after
40,000 miles can get you $500 in travel
Plus you can transfer your miles to your airline mile accounts at a 1:1 ratio without fees.

Capital One Venture Rewards

Bonus of 40,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months.
Annual fee $0 the first year and $59 after
2 miles per dollar spend on purchases

40,000 miles can get you $400 in travel expenses

Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite

40,000 miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
Annual fee $0 for the first year and $89 after
2 miles per dollar spent
 Miles can be redeemed for travel plus you get a 10% credit in points when redeeming

Wells Fargo Propel World American Express Card

40,000 miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months
Annual fee $0 for the first year and $175 after
3 miles for airlines, 2 miles for hotels and 1 miles for other
You can use miles for travel or other tings like a statement credit of 1¢ per mile.


Note that all 4 cards have annual fees that are waived in the first year but fairly pricey after that so if you do sign up for one of these its probably best to cancel after the first year to avoid the fees.  Assuming you don't value the card enough to warrant the fee, which might be possible.  But you might also be able to downgrade to a different card if you like the service.  Barclaycard has a no annual fee version of their Arrival World card.


I don't have any of these cards myself though I do have a Chase card and a couple Barclaycards now.   Note that the links above are not commission links.   These just seem like good deals.   Please be sure to read up on all the terms and conditions if you're interested in signing up for a card. 

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Best of Blogs for Week of August 29th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

MyMoneyBlog discusses the Effect of Student Loan Debt on Homeownership Rate

DQYDJ answers the question What is the Savings Rate in Other Countries?\

DQYDJ also presented Where Do Residents of the States Come From? A Demographic Study of 2012 Census Data   which lets you look up the number of people who migrated to states from various other states and nations based on age ranges. Which is kinda interesting.    In that same area, the NYT published this Where We Came From and Where We Went, State by State which has really neat charts showing state to state migration flows going back to 1900.    You can use these to see for example that the outflow of people from California may be exaggerated.   For example in 2000 a full 76% of the people born in CA still lived there and by 2012 it was down to just 75%.  Not a huge difference, and by comparison in Alaska the numbers were 53% in 2000 and 50% in 2012.  OK I'm writing too much...



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