I'll give Banchi105 a prop-up.
On the plus size, sometimes quality also has little to do with loyalty. This is the same board that trounced on Hummers for having the absolute lowest quality on JD Power-?below Kia and Hyundai. Yet Hummer owners are fiercely loyal. But when it comes to Isuzu...well, you can't trust those JD Power guys.
I have to disagree with you. When you go to the middle
of nowhere, which vehicle you will use ? Isuzu, Hammer or
etc regardless what JD Powers says. I always wonder
how they calculate the 'reliability'. Are you aware than
a broken capholder and a blown engine both have the weight
of 1 (one) claim ? I'd rather risk to have 10 or 20 broken
capholders than a broken T-case on the trail. You cannot
hide your head in sand and you cannot pretend that you do not
know about real-world realiability of your friend's cars.
I have numerious examples of faults of new Japan, Korean,
American and German cars around me (surprisingly,
the most popular problem for my friends is a broken auto
tranny right between Los Angeles and San Francisco, in an
unpopulated area). My Rodeo have not had any significant
problem at all. What should I do with this info ? I'd be
very stupid to sell my trusted Rodeo and to buy a Toyota
Highlander or a Ford Escape for the sole
reason that the Consumer Reports did some unjustified
(by my personal experience) researches.
I'd not throw stones toward the Isuzu/Subaru factory
in NA. What I've read so far is that, according to the
internal Isuzu's statistics, their NA factory has LESS claims
than the Japan factory. And Subarus from the same factory
are among the most reliable vehicles in the America,
according to your beloved charts.
BTW, my 2002 Rodeo's alternator/starter/etc is located
properly. To be precise, I do not care where they are
located. My Rodeo can go thru 20-30" of water without any
problem, as I was able to see multiple times this winter,
when I had to cross Mojave river in different places around
Afton Canyon, and when I had to cross the flood in the
Death Valley. This is about the engineering of NA Isuzus.
When last time I checked the Rodeo's reliability on Edmunds
(or MSN auto - I do not remember), it had all the best points
around, especially for last years. Even Consumer Reports
is not bad about Rodeo in terms of reliability.
I do not know what are you talking
about, guys, and where did you get your figures.
Oleg
