Japanese brands fall, Koreans rise in quality survey

JD Power has reported a few notable trends in its latest Initial Quality Study, showing a rise in performance from Korean automakers and a decline in scores from Japanese rivals.
The study compares complaints emerging from the first three months of vehicle ownership, presented as the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles in each model’s general population. Lower scores are indicators of higher quality.

Porsche held the top spot for the second year in a row, achieving a score of 80 in the latest survey. Kia was among the big surprises, jumping to the number-two position with a score of 86 — the brand’s first time leading all non-premium makes. Jaguar, Hyundai and Infiniti complete the top-five rankings.

Korean brands led the industry by the widest margin ever, with a collective average score of 90. European brands (113) also surpassed Japanese automakers (114) for the first time, and US marques (114) matched Japanese rivals for only the second time.

“For so long, Japanese brands have been viewed by many as the gold standard in vehicle quality,” said JD Power VP of automotive quality Renee Stephens. “While the Japanese automakers continue to make improvements, we’re seeing other brands, most notably Korean makes, really accelerating the rate of improvement.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Fiat was the worst brand with 161 problems reported per 100 vehicles — up from last year’s 206, but not good enough to rise from the bottom rung. Sibling brand Chrysler was the third-worst with a score of 143, down significantly from 2014, while Jeep was the fifth worst with 141 problems reported per 100 vehicles.

Diving deeper into the reports, the firm finds that infotainment and connectivity technology remain the biggest source of complaints for the third consecutive year, while voice-recognition technology adds an average of 10 points to scores.

“Smartphones have set high consumer expectations of how well technology should work, and automakers are struggling to match that success in their new vehicles,” Stephens added. “However, we are seeing some OEMs make important improvements along the way. What’s clear is that they can’t afford to wait for the next generation of models to launch before making important updates to these systems.”