Peugeot, Citroën, DS: Stellantis delivers among the cars with the most manufacturing defects
Each year, the Mobilians organization, which brings together players in the automotive industry in France, establishes a barometer of Builders' Love Rating from distributors. For this 2024 edition, it is BMW, followed by its subsidiary Mini and Renault, which were favored by their distribution network. Information which will primarily be of interest to professionals in the sector, but this barometer also reveals more specific points which may be of great interest to customers.
Thus, among the points addressed by this barometer, Mobilians notably questioned distributors on the frequency of after-sales returns following a manufacturing defect. In this area, it is the Japanese brands that shine and this year it is Suzuki which wins the round, with a satisfaction rating with its network of 8.39/10, followed by Toyota (8.04/10) and Honda (7.75/10). However, everything is not rosy and the average satisfaction of distributors on the criterion of after-sales service returns increased from 73% in 2023 to 69% in 2024. For the criterion of the quality of vehicles delivered, it fell by 86% in 2023 to 80% in 2024.
The absence of Tesla among the manufacturers analyzed is due to the fact that the American brand has opted for a direct distribution model.
LEVEL OF SATISFACTION ACCORDING TO THE “AFTER-SALES RETURN ON PRODUCT MANUFACTURING DEFECT” CRITERION
At the other end of the hierarchy, while Jaguar Land Rover was in last position in 2023 – but also in 2022 and 2021, it is Jeep which closes the ranking this year, with a score of 2.93/10. Moreover, Stellantis has not placed just one of its brands behind the English manufacturer, but five (Jeep, Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles and Alfa Romeo), even though the last place is d The habit reserved for Jaguar Land Rover within any classification taking into account the quality or reliability of the vehicles.
But it seems that it is better to encourage progress, even minor ones, rather than blaming failures. Let us therefore emphasize that if Jaguar Land Rover has given up its last place, it is not only because Stellantis is pushing the limits of understanding day by day, but also because the English manufacturer has experienced the strongest progress within this category. ranking, gaining 2.13 points compared to 2023. Jaguar Land Rover thus goes from 1.60/10 to 3.73/10. It's still bad, but a little less than before.
Stellantis continues to dig his grave
The catastrophic results of the Stellantis group brands analyzed (Jeep, Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Alfa Romeo, Opel and Fiat), which are also based on the criterion of the quality of the vehicles delivered, can be explained by several factors. In recent years, Carlos Tavares has pushed his strategy of reducing expenses even further, so much so that a significant part of the development of the group's models has been outsourced to low-cost countries. “For utilities, software development is done in Morocco and Romania, via the subcontractor CapGemini. But then, everything has to be debugged in France”explains an internal source of Echoes. The Citroën ë-C3 also paid the price and, at the time of writing, Stellantis has still not corrected all the defects.
The big boss of Stellantis, by always wanting to spend less, has thus alienated many of the customers of its famous 1.2 PureTech, its 1.5 BlueHDI, its electric carsbut also its distributors and repairers, a good number of equipment manufacturers and even, for much broader reasons, the Italian government. Damage that will impact the group well beyond the mandate of its CEO, whose golden retirement is planned for January 2026.
