Has anybody seen the JD Power standings?

they have the JD Power rankings posted on the CC website. I thought it was pretty interesting, mostly along the lines of what you would expect. CC rec'd 5 stars, malibu & mc 4 stars, supra & moomba 3 stars. The biggest surprise was Tige at 3 stars. Isn't this a boat that claims to be at the top end? I just thought it was interesting...

I never trust those kind of rankings. CC does make a very nice boat though.

How in the hell is JD Power gonna know what the best boat is? That's like all these companies out there screaming about ISO 9002. BFD. Dead presidents are the true gauge of how good your product is - the more you get, the better job you are doing...

I hope there are more people out there that think like bigd and phaeton because Toyota/Lexus kicks our butt(I work for Ford) every year in the JD Power rankings.

As for as the boat ratings, I remember thinking when I fist saw them, that if my Nautique is as good as it gets, I really feel sorry for the Supra and Moomba owners and below. Not that my boat has been a problem, it just hasn't been at the level that I would expect for winning the JD Power ratings.

(Message edited by gotpwr on January 09, 2003)

Hey,
They took the survey with feedback from the owners. They didn't just pull the results out of the companies marketing book or anything.

Yea right!

Dan I couldn't agree more.

Dont feel sorry for us Moomba owners, I'm very happy w/ my boat. I also noticed that Moomba, Supra and even Tige had a little disclaimer realting to the sample size. Also I thought it was interesting that Moomba performed better than Supra in the renkings. As far as Toyota vs Ford, I dont think anyone would deny that Toyotas are far more reliable and better built than Fords.

DJL,
I can't tell from your profile, but do you happen to own a Nautique? I bet you do.

I don't own any boat.

One little point, and not a unique one. As far as I have seen, ALL wakeboard boats (including Tige) are built better than MOST family runabouts, deck boats and small (fresh water) fishing boats, .

There are LOTS of boat dealers here in Florida, most of which sell family runabouts and fishing boats. Feature for feature, I'd stack ANY Wakeboard specific boat up against Regal, Bayliner, Chapparal, Stingray, Sea Ray, Four Winns, Wellcraft, etc.

I think the problems associated with JD Power rating boats vs. cars stem from the sample size being so small, the marine environment being very demanding on components, and the user's expectations of performance being so diverse. As a result, they're probably not as accurate an indicator of overall quality for boats as they are for cars...

You have to factor in what they were looking for. what questions did they ask, and how well do the owners they spoke to know their boats? cars are easy to guage, boats, not so simple. as far as the quote from Dan(gotpwr) goes, it proves a point. Lexus makes cars that people dream of buying, and they spend tall cash to buy them. Of course the owners will rank them high, to justify the second mortgage they took to buy their "dream" car. Alot of the cars ford makes are affordable, which means the owners don't see them as ....... extensions. Now, if they would only come up with a way to track repair costs acurately, I think that ranking may be worth something.

I found the test drive paragraph particularly interesting. I went with cash in hand to buy a... different brand of boat, but the dealer didn't want to "waste his time" when I told him I was comparing against another brand I was also considering. I'm very glad he did, cause I fell into a really sweet deal a week later.

Here are a couple paragraphs from the press release, if you want to read the whole thing it's here: http://www.jdpa.com/studies_jdpower/pressrelease.asp?StudyID=650


"..Correct Craft performed well in nearly every major factor of overall satisfaction in the ski/wakeboard boat segment. Correct Craft, which is followed by Mastercraft and Malibu in overall satisfaction, received high scores in areas related to the actual ski and wakeboard experience, including the ability to create a large wake and the ease of steering while pulling skiers and wakeboarders."
...
"Additionally, the study finds that those who test drive their boat prior to purchase are significantly more satisfied than those who did not. However, only one-third of all boat buyers report having the opportunity to test drive their boat. By comparison, in the automobile industry, more than two-thirds of buyers test-drive their new vehicle."

Dan (Schnideau), I'm interested to hear your feedback on why you're not that impressed with your CC. What's the dillio?

Tom, sorry for the delay in getting back to you I was out of town all week. Don't get me wrong I love my Nautique and would probably buy another. I've just had a lot of little nit-picky things go wrong. Here's the list.
- Defrost vent opening broke. Covered under warranty
- Elastic cord on storage bag on the engine cover broke twice. Had it replaced under warranty once. I tied a knot in it the second time.
- Spring clips to secure the swim platform fell off numerous time. After buying about four replacements at the dealer, I finally found a positive locking clip and haven't had a problem since.
- Depth gauge became water logged after I got caught in a rain storm. It hasn't worked since.
- Back light in speedometer never worked from day one. Had to have the whole gauge replaced under warranty since the unit is sealed.
- Foam seal on radio cover left adhesive on the radio face plate. I fixed this myself.
- Empty pump for the ballast system quit working the first year I had the boat. This was replaced under warranty.
- Passenger side windshield loosened up after about a year.

Oh, one more thing the engine hours decided to reset to zero last fall mysteriously.

The engine hours resetting has to do with the gauge not working right. Should be able to get that replaced under warranty. CC is no longer using the gauges from Teleflex. Too many problems from them. You should get that replaced soon. They could probably do that on the spot as long as they have the part.

I don't put too much "weight" into the JD ratings. The differences in ski/wakeboard boats are so small it gets nit-picky. Yes, there are the plush more expensive models and they're there for the people who want to spend 40k-50k. As for construction, the lower end models and the upper end models are all the same. I want to see a study on ski/wakeboard boats that take into account price! And I'll bet you nine times out of ten Moomba will top the list! Wait, there is a study out there that guages this (Price to quality) and customer satisfaction and reliability. I put a whole lot of "weight" on it. It's the third quarter Retail Results from 2002. http://www.moomba.com/moomba.html
This is a good indication that Skiers Choice is doing all the right things!! It's called "More Bang for your Buck!" And you can't contest that Skiers Choice ranks amongst the highest in overall customer satisfaction. And if you haven't guessed yet, yes I am a Skiers Choice Boat Owner. I bought my boat new in 2002 knowing very little about Skiers Choice, and now that I have done more research I can't stop being amazed and more and more happy with my purchase!