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The results have been just released by J.D. Powers if its Dependability Study Results for 2009.

1. Buick and Jaguar tied for first
2. Lexus
3. Toyota
4. Mercury
5. Lincoln.

Three out of top six listed are brands produced by GM and Ford. Jaguar has been under control of Ford until this last year. I guess not bad for American automakers that can't produced autos of quality that the Japanese car companies do.

John F. Shireman

Seems to me that Buick and Mercury have been in the top five for some years now. My father always said "Have you ever heard anyone complain about thier Buick?". With the passage of years, that has seemed to be true.

Then why the rumor that Mercury is being phased out??

I have been a Mercury owner for years. I prefer them to Ford because it was always a little more polished, more trim packages, & more options. However, these last few years the Mercurys and Fords are delivered fully loaded. So the only difference between the 2 are grilles & Tail lights. Badge engineering has failed. Mercury has been doing it since the 1970's. It is a shame, but it might take losing Mercury to save Ford. Where have we seen this before??? Hmmm.

I love my buicks (I've owned 3) but I always think of this Marc Cohn song "Silver Thunderbird":

Don't gimme no Buick
Son you must take my word
If there's a God in heaven
He's got a Silver Thunderbird
You can keep your Eldorados
And the foreign car's absurd
Me I wanna go down
In a Silver Thunderbird

I like Mercs too but also heard or read the rumor they were considering dropping. Think the reason was again volume. Apparently lots think there is not enough difference between Ford to justify the extra price of Merc name at a Lincoln dealership so buy a loaded Ford instead.

Figured they could close an assy plant or two by having only the Ford volume. Maybe by unloading what they already have, things will look better cash wise.

The data John refers to is the Initial Quality Survey - it is was it reports to be, but is often misused. It surveys defects on newly purchased cars - the OEM's like it because it pertains to what they are selling now. It has little correlation (I mean that in the statistical sense) with repurchase decision. There is a much less sexy survey done on defects after several years of ownership. That one correlates highly with repurchase decision. Makes sense.

Please , let's go back to Packards - we don't have the political diatribes here that the Buick forum is plagued with.

The closest thing to a Packard clipper in the automotive market today is a Buick or Mercury. What will fill the void of Mercury?

I think discussing the automotive industry today is completely relevant in a Packard thread. Packard suffered many of the problems seen in the Automotive industry today. Oldsmobile has become an orphaned brother, and will probably be joined by Mercury.

Maybe Merc safe. Article on AP says Ford now in talks to sell Volvo so it can emphasize it's "one Ford strategy" and concentrate on core F, M, L brands.

Bkazmer: The automakers like Toyota and other car manufactures when placing in the top five in this study have
had no problem in blowing their own horns.

In the past ten yeas when American auto makers didn't place high they were branded as building bad cars by the auto mags and press. However when American built cars do place well in the J.D. Powers study they get very little credit.

Having little or no trouble with a brand new car also plays a big role in helping shape opinion if the new customer will be a repeat buyer down the road..

I more than any other person in this forum start more none Packard related threads. If things get to far to the right or to the left Big Kev steps in. If you only limited the automotive talk to only one subject matter such as Packard, then you tend to miss out on a lot of things pertaining the automotive world.

John F. Shireman