WHICH OF the following statements are false? (No April Foo! tricks, I promise.) 1.. Five-year-old Cadillac models, in general, are more reliable than -any other five-year-old models j in North America, 2. Used 1989 Buick Cars have less _ problems than 1989 Honda and. ‘ Toyota models. 3. After five years of "esa Audi automobiles have fewer ‘problems. than BMW, Porsche, Nissan or Mazda vehicles. “If you answered “false” to any -of the above statements, you just failed the Wake-Up-and-Smell- ’ the-Coffee Test. According to a survey released by J.D. Power and Associates last ‘week, the long-term reliability and-. dependability records of domestic, Japanese and European cars have become so close that the Asian . vehicles no longer have a signifi- .* eanttead over others in quality. n the 1994 Vehicle’. 5 ‘ Dependability Study, five-year-old * North American ‘automobiles were found to have only 5% more prob- “Jems than Asian cars. of the samme page, and European vehicles only 511% more roblems than the Asian and Associates — —a ighly. ‘respected marketing infor- . ‘mation firma in California — con- “yducts a a number of automotive sur- iveys every. year but the Vehicle ‘Dependability Study is the only ne that focuses on the Jong-term cliability of ‘passenger’ cars. : "This year’s study was based on: ponses from some’ 22,000 car wners of 1989 model-year cars, © representing 31 different makes | vand 15} models.’ The survey was . “conducted among the people who : shave owned their 1989 vehicles for: ‘the past five years... +) They were asked to report prob- jlems they have experienced in the “fifth year of ownership in such ' ‘areas as engine, transmission, elec- - - » «trical, brakes, ‘squeaks and rattles, °° iexterior paint, Steering, and wind « ee 5 Driver errors ‘main cause of | road fatalities ALTHOUGH VEHICLE design _ and technology help protect vehicle ’ occupants, it is drivers and their driving decisions that make the largest contributions to motor vehi- ‘cle safety: According to General Motors’ ‘safety scientists, many of the fac- tors affecting risk on the highway rare a function of the decisions dri- “vers make, For‘example, a study of fatali- - ‘ties of drivers or passengers who -were wearing safciy belts at the time of the crash found that 94% of those fatal crashes were caused by ‘driver error.’ ». The largest fraction of those “mistakes (45%) were characterized ‘as “inadvertent error,” where the ‘driver was obeying traffic laws but “made a mistake that resulted in a fatality, Another 21% of those crashes (in which a fatality occurred to:a belted occupant) could be attrib- uted to “aggressive driving” of the vehicle in which the fatality took piace, lity survey David Chao OVERDRIVE noise. The result of this comprehen- sive study was expressed in terms of a Vehicle Dependability Index (VDD, and for 1994, Cadillac achieved the highest VDI number. _ This is the first time a domestic “nameplate has taken the top spot'in a VDI survey. Audi, which has been strug- | gling to gain consumer confidence over the past few years, placed a . strong third, behind Mercedes- "Benz, proving to car buyers that its ‘fineup of sleek sedans is just as _ reliable as other top European and “Japanese brands. -:- - Buick-algo did well in the sur- vey, capturing fourth position with a higher dependability index score . than all Japanese nameplates.