European, US, Korean auto firms score over Japanese rivals: JD Power survey
18 Jun 2015
The quality of vehicles made by European, Korean and US companies have overtaken their Japanese rivals, long the industry standard, who are now struggling to keep up.
According to the latest survey on new vehicle quality by American consulting firm JD Power, despite continued problems with entertainment and connectivity systems, quality was starting to improve for the car industry as a whole.
For the first time since 2012, buyers said new vehicles had fewer problems than the previous year.
''The cars being built, for the most part, are very good quality coming out of the box,'' said John Humphreys, senior vice president of JD Power.
According to JD Power the industry score was up as many companies improved existing models, with the top companies doing better with mechanical and infotainment quality of new models.
The 2015 survey of over 84,000 car buyers in February and March found that Porsche once again topped for quality.
Kia jumped five spots to take second place while its sister brand Hyundai came in at the fourth spot.
Jaguar came in at No3, and Infiniti rounded out the top five finishers in the survey, in which participants were asked about problems in the first 90 days of ownership.