Maruti''s clean sweep in J D Power ''initial quality study 2005''

Market leader Maruti today topped the industry's quality awards, with its models Alto, Swift and Esteem bagging the first position in the annual J D Power 'initial quality study' (IQS).

In the compact car segment, Maruti's Alto, Zen and WagonR took the top three positions, relegating Hyundai's Santro to the fourth position. The Esteem was rated first in the entry mid- size segment for the third year in a row, finishing ahead of Ford Ikon and Tata Indigo.

Maruti models helped push up the overall quality score for the car industry by 49 points, even as the study concluded that initial quality of new vehicles has improved in India.

Honda's City, Skoda's Octavia and Toyota's Innova were the winners in their respective segments.

"The number of problems reported by customers has dropped in all categories comprising the IQS compared to 2004, with eight out of 12 nameplates showing improvements, " said Mohit Arora, director, J D Power Asia-Pacific," This is genuinely a positive sign for both manufacturers and new vehicle buyers."

While Alto has been rated first among compact cars for the second year in a row, WagonR is the industry's most improved brand over last year.

With an improvement in eight out of nine IQS categories, the Skoda Octavia ranks highest in the premium mid size segment for the first time in the study, followed by Chevrolet Optra and Toyota Corolla.

Toyota Innova ranks first in the utility vehicle super segment followed by Maruti Omni and Chevrolet Tavera.

The 'initial quality study', now in its ninth year, focuses on 135 problem symptoms affecting vehicle quality across nine IQS problem categories. It measures problems experienced in the first two to six months of ownership based on evaluations from more than 4,500 new vehicle owners of 35 different models.

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