Americans Are Happier with This Car Brand Than Any Other
Americans may love their cars, but these days they love them a little less.
Consumer satisfaction with their cars has fallen for the third consecutive year, reflecting unhappiness with increasing recalls and rising prices, according to new data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Car reliability has improved overall in the past decade but the number of recalls is at an all-time high. “This should not happen with modern manufacturing technology and has negative consequences for driver safety, costs, and customer satisfaction,” ACSI Chairman and founder Claes Fornell said in a statement.
Car owners in the second quarter of 2015 reported a 40 percent increase in recalls year over year. The most high profile recalls involve Takata airbags, affecting more than 17 million older-model vehicles built by 11 different auto makers.
Related: Senators Urge Recall of All Vehicles with Takata Airbags
Looking at individual brands, the index shows that Americans prefer Japanese and luxury brand cars, with Lexus displacing Mercedes Benz as the brand with the highest overall satisfaction (84 out of 100). Mercedes tied for second place with Acura and Lincoln.
The average for all autos fell 3.7 points to 79. The only American automaker to rank above average was Ford with a score of 81. General Motors and Chrysler saw their scores fall modestly to 79 and 75 respectively.
Despite a growing decline in satisfaction, Americans are holding onto their vehicles longer than ever. The average age of cars and light trucks is now 11.5 years old, according to a report issued last month by IHS Automotive.
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Budget ‘Chaos’ Threatens Army Reset: Retired General
One thing is standing in the way of a major ongoing effort to reset the U.S. Army, writes Carter Ham, a retired four-star general who’s now president and CEO of the Association of the U.S. Army, at Defense One. “The problem is the Washington, D.C., budget quagmire.”
The issue is more than just a matter of funding levels. “What hurts more is the erratic, unreliable and downright harmful federal budget process,” which has forced the Army to plan based on stopgap “continuing resolutions” instead of approved budgets for nine straight fiscal years. “A slowdown in combat-related training, production delays in new weapons, and a postponement of increases in Army troop levels are among the immediate impacts of operating under this ill-named continuing resolution. It’s not continuous and it certainly doesn’t display resolve.”
Pentagon Pushes for Faster F-35 Cost Cuts
The Pentagon has taken over cost-cutting efforts for the F-35 program, which has been plagued by years of cost overruns, production delays and technical problems. The Defense Department rejected a cost-saving plan proposed by contractors including principal manufacturer Lockheed Martin as being too slow to produce substantial savings. Instead, it gave Lockheed a $60 million contract “to pursue further efficiency measures, with more oversight of how the money was spent,” The Wall Street Journal’s Doug Cameron reports. F-35 program leaders “say they want more of the cost-saving effort directed at smaller suppliers that haven’t been pressured enough.” The Pentagon plans to cut the price of the F-35A model used by the Air Force from a recent $94.6 million each to around $80 million by 2020. Overall, the price of developing the F-35 has climbed above $400 billion, with the total program cost now projected at $1.53 trillion. (Wall Street Journal, CNBC)
Chart of the Day - October 6, 2017
Financial performance for insurers in the individual Obamacare markets is improving, driven by higher premiums and slower growth in claims. This suggests that the market is stabilizing. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Quote of the Day - October 5, 2017
"The train's left the station, and if you're a budget hawk, you were left at the station." -- Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.