Some car nuts scratched their heads to see that Dodge peeled to the top of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey for 2020 and became the first domestic marque ever to finish No. 1 in the authoritative annual study, tying with Kia.
But there was no mistake: After decades in the back of the pack in third-party measures of product quality, and recently just in the middle, Dodge and Fiat Chrysler Automotive’s other major U.S. brands came up on the outside and gobsmacked the American auto industry with their performance this year.
J.D. Power’s unprecedented imprimatur wasn’t really a surprise to Mark Champine and his team at FCA. Nor do they believe it’ll be the last time their vehicles and brands will gain independent recognition for industry-leading quality.
“We know how much effort it took,” Champine, head of quality for FCA in North America since late 2018, told me. “We’re not going to let ourselves slide back. It’s something that’s going to be sustained. Instead of people questioning the integrity of the survey, they’re going to say this is for real.”
The performance of Dodge, and of FCA generally, was a surprise to many in the industry partly because the company and brands came so far, so fast. FCA under the late former CEO Sergio Marchionne and the current CEO, Mike Manley, has done significant things right over the last decade, including jettisoning passenger cars before Detroit Three rivals de-emphasized sedans, and creating stronger and more distinct brands out of what was in their stable after the 2009 bankruptcy and takeover of Chrysler by Fiat. But a reputation for relatively poor product quality continued to hang over FCA, its dealers and its overall proposition to consumers.
FCA’s phenomenal rise in quality, as recognized by J.D. Power, also surprised many because IQS is a moving target. Hyundai and Kia proved the importance of improving initial quality by finishing around the top in the survey each year for the past several years, accompanying the Korean brands’ rise to mainstream shares in the U.S. auto market. Their example has helped inspire every automaker to strive to do better by the thousands of actual customers Power interviews each year for IQS.
And there’s yet another aspect of FCA’s performance in the 2020 survey that is flummoxing rivals: It was Dodge — with five relatively old models and nothing else — that outperformed other FCA brands whose vehicles were newer. For instance, the Dodge Durango nameplate has been around since 1998, and the current version is built on a decade-old mechanical platform that the model shares with the Jeep Grand Cherokee; yet Durango ranked as one of the top three in the new IQS in the “Upper Midsize SUV” segment, along with Kia Sorento and Toyota Highlander.
Champine wasn’t surprised by his company’s showing, he said, because FCA has been laser-focused on improving product quality at the plant level for at least a couple of years. “It’s been the result of a bottom-line effort of people, and a cross-functional effort across the organization, because we were committed to seeing this happen,” he said.
Actually, FCA long has been ranked as among top automakers, by J.D. Power and others, for how its design and engineering contribute to overall vehicle quality. Its Uconnect infotainment system, a common platform for its brands, for example, has been lauded by many third parties as among the most user-friendly in the industry for years; by contrast, Ford’s abysmal experience with infotainment interfaces was a huge drag on its rankings by J.D. Power and other evaluators a few years ago.
“The gap was our manufacturing-plant defects,” Champine explained. Power gives out plant-level quality awards, and only once since 2006 had Fiat Chrysler received one.
Champine said that Fiat Chrysler had been poised for a breakthrough in manufacturing-quality ratings even a few years ago but its ambitions would get derailed by a particular few setbacks. But under Champine and Manley over the last two years, Fiat Chrysler emphasized avoiding such pitfalls, wiping out the company’s overall manufacturing-quality deficit and matching its estimable design quality with sterling production quality.
A key has been the establishment of a “process that’s very focused on issue prevention and issue identification” of quality concerns in each plant. “We have reviews at each assembly plant on a regular basis among product development, quality, manufacturing, supplier operations and, where appropriate, suppliers themselves. We very systematically go through what our customers are telling us and we have a very structured process for ensuring that we close those issues robustly and read those things across to the entire organization.
“There’s nothing rocket science about it. But there’s consistency of effort. We’ve kind of refocused to make sure we’re getting into the issues with the right intensity and urgency and the right solutions.”
This dedication includes not letting older products glide and just gradually allowing new vehicles, presumably of improving quality, raise FCA’s game. “We use focus and energy to attack issues at every single plant with the same intensity regardless of the age of the product,” Champine said. “That’s how you keep improving.”
And sure enough: In addition to overall honors that saw the Dodge brand and products finish tied for No. 1, Ram tied for No. 3, and Jeep rank No. 11, all big jumps from the year before, Power honored two individual FCA factories: an assembly plant in Toluca, Mexico, that makes Dodge Journey and Jeep Compass, two old-line nameplates, and the company’s venerable assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, which assembles Jeep Cherokee.
“Our leadership has made it clear that we’re committed, first and foremost, to running with the best, to being in the conversation with the best,” Champine said. “We’ve had a history that hasn’t put us there, but now this commitment is throughout the organization that we’re going to be among the best.”
