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The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated data-driven framework for processing and analyzing large-scale vehicle maintenance records to get more comprehensive understanding on vehicle quality.

We propose a framework for vehicle quality analysis based on maintenance record mining and Bayesian Network. It includes the development of a comprehensive dictionary for efficient classification of maintenance items, and the establishment of a Bayesian Network model for vehicle quality evaluation. The vehicle design parameters, price and performance of functional systems are modeled as node variables in the Bayesian Network. Bayesian Network reasoning is then used to analyze the influence of these nodes on vehicle quality and their respective importance.

A case study using the maintenance records of 74 sport utility vehicle (SUV) models is presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed framework. Our results reveal that factors such as vehicle size, chassis issues and engine displacement, can affect the chance of vehicle failures and accidents. The influence of factors such as price and performance of engine and chassis show explicit regional differences.

Previous research usually focuses on limited maintenance records from a single vehicle producer, while our proposed framework enables efficient and systematic processing of larger-scale maintenance records for vehicle quality analysis, which can support auto companies, consumers and regulators to make better decisions in purchase choice-making, vehicle design and market regulation.