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Auto Quality Statistics Question

garys_2k

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Jan 9, 2003
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This newspaper article discusses the quality of autos, and mentions their defect rate as "complaints per 100 vehicles." Summing it up, it shows:

Toyota - 101
Hyundai - 102
GM - 120
DCX - 123

It looks like everyone is bound to have at least one complaint with a new car, so it's hard for me to quantify just what these numbers mean. Since ANY car is likely to generate a complaint, to me the bigger question is the likelihood of having more than one complaint.

Clearly, DCX is more likely to sell a vehicle that generates two, or three, complaints than Toyota or Hyundai, but how much more likely?

Is there a way to compute the probability of getting a two or more complaint vehicle from the information given? I thought I knew a bit about statistics but this one has me stumped.
 
garys_2k said:
This newspaper article discusses the quality of autos, and mentions their defect rate as "complaints per 100 vehicles." Summing it up, it shows:

Toyota - 101
Hyundai - 102
GM - 120
DCX - 123

It looks like everyone is bound to have at least one complaint with a new car, so it's hard for me to quantify just what these numbers mean. Since ANY car is likely to generate a complaint, to me the bigger question is the likelihood of having more than one complaint.

Clearly, DCX is more likely to sell a vehicle that generates two, or three, complaints than Toyota or Hyundai, but how much more likely?

Is there a way to compute the probability of getting a two or more complaint vehicle from the information given? I thought I knew a bit about statistics but this one has me stumped.
Click to expand...
If the average number of complaints from a Toyota-buyer is 1.01, compared to 1.23 for a DCX-buyer, what more do you need to know? :)

Honestly, you cannot compute the probability you're asking for from this article. The DCX could have 5 complaints for every 4th car, but could also have 500 complaints on every 400th car, giving you a 399 to 1 chance not to buy a lemon. :)
 
garys_2k said:

Is there a way to compute the probability of getting a two or more complaint vehicle from the information given? I thought I knew a bit about statistics but this one has me stumped.
Click to expand...

Hmm, from the article we know:

Brand, 2003 data, 2004 data, improvement %
Hyundai, 143, 102, 28.67
Toyota, 115, 101, 12.17
Ford x, x-.07x, 7
GM, 133, 120, 9.77
Daimler, 139, 123, 11.5

2003 industry average, 2004 industry average, improvement %
133, 119, 10.5

I'd probably do something like look at the percentage improvement (ie. decrease) in rate from 2003 to 2004. I'm not sure exactly what I'd do with them right now though.
 
OK, thanks. I'd guess it also depends on what the nature of the "complaints" were. There may be a slight difference between "Excuse me, that thread needs to be trimmed," v. "Hey, is my transmission supposed to be dropping parts behind me like that?"
 
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