[RobUK]

http://www.whatcar.com/awards/jdpower/2014/home

You'll find the 3 Series in the 'family' category which was won by the Mercedes C Class, with the F30 coming in at 7th (interestingly the worst car in that category was the Audi A4).

All they had to say about the '3' was - For: responsive steering; motorway passing power; exterior/interior colour. combinations; gearshift; styling. Against: rear seat adjustment; rear head and legroom; road noise; cabin storage space; servicing costs.

I'm with them on all the 'for' items. As for the against comments, have ridden in the back of mine a few times and never had a problem with comfort, headroom or legroom and I'm 6'1". Road noise - agreed. Cabin storage space - ok not huge but then I don't carry lots of odds & ends. Servicing costs - wouldn't know, got the Service Plus package. What I would have marked the car down for in my case would have been poor reliability but then I think my car is in the minority there.

I am a little skeptical of these surveys as they can't be wholly objective. I think company car owners probably answer questions differently to private buyers and the same for people on different budgets or with differing driving experience. E.g. the sort of person who buys a VW Up! will probably have a completely different set of expectations to that of say an F30/F31 buyer.

[335dJa]

Totally agree with the expectations part, some entry level car owners are over the moon with a car that starts in the morning!

[Mr NSB]

One of the reasons I chose my F30 over a C class was there was more leg room in the rear.

[SkyJawa]

Not forgetting also the C class is end of life, as is the A4.

[jusdorange]

Yes, take things with a pinch of salt with mass surveys , people have varying requirements, expectations and so forth

I for one dislike the layout of C class hence I got the 3er,

[JD6]

Agree about expectations making the results difficult to interpret.

One particular issue is that often older people replace their cars after 10-15 years, so the new one feels like a complete revelation and exceeds all expectations. This is likely to skew the placing of cars favoured by this demographic - Skoda, Honda, Jaguar, Merc...

There are still examples of cars that do badly and are favoured by older generations, but that may just mean these are truly crap cars!

[Cilonen]

Bear in mind that this survey relates far more to the PREVIOUS 3 series than the F30:

How we did it

The JD Power survey took place between January and March 2014, using cars registered between January 2011 and December 2012.

The F30 was released in March 2012 IIRC, so proportionally fewer would have been purchased compared to the previous model.

As others have said - pinch of salt.

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by JD6

Agree about expectations making the results difficult to interpret.

One particular issue is that often older people replace their cars after 10-15 years, so the new one feels like a complete revelation and exceeds all expectations. This is likely to skew the placing of cars favoured by this demographic - Skoda, Honda, Jaguar, Merc...

There are still examples of cars that do badly and are favoured by older generations, but that may just mean these are truly crap cars!

With changes to lease and pcp pricing, that is starting to not be the case.

A number of old (using retired as opposed to age) tend to lease or get low cost pcp style deals.

It is likely to be very regional, however both Cambridge and where I live now, loads of pensioners in new (1-2 yrs).

With these type of surveys and forums, you tend to get people on the negative side voice more, rather than those who think are ok to good.

They should publish AA,RAC etc figures on breakdown %.

That would be telling.