Driver Power 2009 In Auto Express 15.04.09

[japthree]

At number 29 Lexus IS (old i.e. IS200/300) but NUMBER 1 for Reliability and NUMBER 1 for Build Quality!

whereas

At number 18 Lexus IS (new) but reliability is number 33 and build quality is number 21

Q.E.D? What do you think? Or do you take these customer satisfaction surveys with a pinch of salt?

[Anuj]

i remeber the old is topping the same charts last year. however the new is got the best running costs results if i remember correctly, havent checked the driver power. will look now.

[michaelH]

The other development is that Lexus has slipped to 2nd place overall behind Skoda. It is of course a good result for the old IS and quite a good result for the new one. What it measures primarily is customer satisfaction, so it is pretty subjective, especially on issues such as braking and handling, although those who contribute are also asked for some hard data (how many breakdowns etc). I have little doubt but that some contributors who are generally dissatisfied with a car's reliability etc will give grudging responses on other things too, even if the car is not really so bad in those other respects.

The Lexus results do match my own experience of the IS200 and IS250 - the 250 is in many ways the better car, but does seem to lack the old car's bulletproof and rattlefree quality.