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BMW, Hyundai score big in JD Power's first Tech Experience Index

While automakers are quick to brag about winning a JD Power Initial Quality Study award, the reality, as we've pointed out before, is that these ratings are somewhat misleading, since IQS doesn't necessarily distinguish genuine quality issues. JD Power's new Tech Experience Index aims to solve that problem. The new metric takes the same 90-day approach as IQS but focuses exclusively on technology – collision protection, comfort and convenience, driving assistance, entertainment and connectivity, navigation, and smartphone mirroring. It splits the industry up into just seven segments, based loosely on size, which is why the Chevrolet Camaro is in the same division (mid-size) as Kia Sorento and the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class is in the same segment as the Hyundai Genesis (mid-size premium). It makes for some screwy bedfellows, to be sure. Still, splitting tech experience away from initial quality should allow customers to make more informed and intelligent decisions when buying new vehicles. In the inaugural study, respondents listed BMW and Hyundai as the big winners, with two segment awards – the 2 Series for small premium and the 4 Series for compact premium, and the Genesis for mid-size premium and Tucson for small segment. The Chevrolet Camaro (midsize), Kia Forte (compact), and Nissan Maxima (large) scored individual wins. Ford also had a surprising hit with the Lincoln MKC, which ranked third in the compact premium segment behind the 4 Series and Lexus IS. This is a coup for the Blue Oval, whose woeful MyFord Touch systems made the brand a victim of the IQS' flaws in the early 2010s. But Ford and other automakers might not want to celebrate just yet. According to JD Power, there's still a lot of room for improvement – navigation systems were the lowest-rated piece of tech in the study. Instead, customers repeatedly saluted collision-avoidance and safety systems, giving the category the best marks of the study and listing blind-spot monitoring and backup cameras as two must-have features – 96 percent of respondents said they wanted those two systems in their next vehicle. But this isn't really a surprise. Implementation of safety systems from brand to brand is similar, and they don't require any input from users, unlike navigation and infotainment systems which are frustratingly deep.

Nissan Rogue gives brand rare monthly sales lead over Honda

The five top-selling brands in the automotive industry are usually Ford, Toyota, Chevy, Honda and Nissan, in that order. This lineup emerged intact when counting a year's worth of sales for 2013, and there was no reason to expect it would change at the beginning of 2014. But it did. Thanks to surging sales of its all-new Rogue, Nissan managed to pull ahead of Honda to become the fourth best-selling auto brand in January 2014, selling 81,472 units (an increase of 10.41 percent compared to January 2013) to Honda's 80,808 (a decrease of 3.96 percent).
The Rogue led the way for Nissan, contributing an additional 4,880 units in January compared to the same month last year - a 54.5-percent increase for a grand total of 13,831 units. But the Rogue had help, with the Frontier pickup adding an extra 2,307 units (an 87.9-percent increase), the Juke an extra 1,081 units (a 45.8-percent increase), the Altima an extra 1,051 units (a 4.9-percent increase) and the Maxima an additional 983 units (a 32.9-percent increase). Honda, meanwhile, was hurt by falling sales of the Accord (down 13.9 percent) and Pilot (down 7.6 percent), and stagnant sales of the Civic.
Honda, however, should take pride in the fact that it's luxury division, Acura, outsold Infiniti, Nissan's luxury division, last month - 10,823 units sold to 8,998. That margin of victory was large enough to keep the parent company of American Honda ahead of Nissan North America for the month of January.

Nissan IDX sports coupe future increasingly cloudy [w/poll]

There's a strong desire among enthusiasts for more inexpensive, lightweight, fun-to-drive, rear-wheel-drive cars to exist in a world that contrasts sharply with automakers' desire to make money. While we all love the feeling of controlling the back end with the throttle, front-wheel drive is king when it comes to affordable cars. One of the future bright spots in the rear-drive market appeared to come from Nissan with its pair of IDx concepts. The two showcars from the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show took liberal design inspiration from the classic Datsun 510 and mixed it with modern powertrains in very attractive little packages. However, some pretty dark clouds are reportedly now hanging over the project.
Last we heard, a production version was supposedly "in the plan" from the Japanese automaker, but its trajectory may have changed inside the company in the last few months. According to Pierre Loing, vice president of product planning for Nissan Americas, the issue is making the sports coupe profitable. While Nissan has access to rear-wheel drive platforms, they are all meant for more premium vehicles (read: they cost too much). Assuming around 60,000 annual sales, Loing tells Ward's Auto that making a dedicated chassis for the IDx just isn't a moneymaker. If the car still does see production, it'll be after 2016, he says.
The decision whether to build the IDx has been teetering for a while. Nissan spokesperson Dan Bedore previously told Autoblog that the coupe would need a groundswell of support from consumers and enthusiasts if is to actually have a shot at production. If you are among the hopeful looking to see this affordable, rear-drive performance car in showrooms, get some friends together and start letting Nissan know that you actually want it - you can start here by adding a Comment and voting in our poll, because we're going to send the results on to Nissan.