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LOSERS: Italy's Fiat tied for last in quality with Mercedes' smart brand. Both had 151 problems per 100 vehicles. BEST MODELS: Ford and Lexus had the top cars or trucks in three categories. Infiniti, Nissan and Toyota each won two categories. TECHNOLOGY WOES: Sargent said the poor quality scores for new technology came because people had trouble adjusting to the devices, and because some of them don't operate right. Electronics are making their way from luxury to mainstream brands where they are new to people. "There are a lot of problems where the system just doesn't work as designed," he said. MOST IMPROVED: Jaguar, which went from 21st place last year to second this year, and Nissan, which improved 11 spots to tie for 12th. Jaguar was weighed down last year by problems with the XJ model, which was new for 2011. Fixing those problems vaulted the brand, which has only three models, toward the top, Sargent said. Nissan improved by hard work across all of its models, he said. GOING BACKWARD: Troubles with touch screens and automatic transmissions continued to hurt Ford, which finished 27th out of 34 brands in the survey. Ford was a star in 2010 at fifth place, but tumbled when it introduced its complicated MyFordTouch screens. Buyers also were annoyed with constant shifting by transmissions in small cars. Sargent said J.D. Power surveyed people who bought cars before Ford unveiled a major fix to its touch-screen. "That fix has taken MyFordTouch quite a ways toward where it needs to go," he said.
[Associated
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