Key car quality study ranks software bugs as most common complaint, knocks Ford again

New cars and trucks have fewer quality problems today than ever before -- but when they do, the most common complaint isn't mechanical, but a failure to communicate.

According to J.D. Power & Associates annual Initial Quality Survey of new-vehicle owners, problems with 2011 models after three months on the road fell 5 percent from the previous year. But complaints about in-car electronics systems, especially voice controls, surged -- knocking Ford, which has pushed its MyFord Touch screen and Sync into about 4 million vehicles, to 27th out of 34 brands rated, down from fifth two years ago and 23rd last year.

Anticipating the results, Ford said on Tuesday that a recent update of the software developed with Microsoft and sent to 377,000 customers would improve its scores next year. Ford says the technology that replaces radio and air conditioning knobs with a touch screen draws in new customers, and has even held training classes at dealerships -- but it hedged when adding the system to its key F-Series pickups by keeping some switches in addition to the screen, and it's too soon to know if the updates eliminate glitches like random rebooting.