So technically this is a pay-for-play kind of shenanigans?
What JD power does is make a massive number of categories to give awards in. They then choose metrics for the survey that prioritize certain traits of the vehicle.
The surveys themselves are conducted in a fair manner and awarded companies truly deserve those awards. But, in some sense, them winning it was a foregone conclusion the second the metrics were selected.
It is like conducting a strongest man competition that prioritized height over anything else. Then the competition was conducted and people from Netherlands won handedly. By the metrics, Netherlands has won the competition fair and square. But, using height as the main metric for strength made their victory a foregone conclusion. Same thing.
Their surveys are free. But, they charge automakers money to use the awards in marketing. Honda or Toyota doesn't quite care for JD power awards because they win a lot in other comparisons. But, American manufacturers rely on these awards to look better, because frankly they don't have much going for them.
If you care about a category specifically (like 1st year reliability), it still seems valuable.
It's the marketing/awards side that's quite literally garbage. And certain automakers will pay for this as well.
We did used to buy the surveys to understand the results. But the awards themselves weren't worth much.
This is common joke between friends. "Best in class HD towing" is something you used to hear on Chevy Silverado commercials when they, in fact, had lower tow ratings than F150 or Ram at the time. "HD towing" seemed to be a category that included Silverados only?