The JD Power Initial Quality Brand is a Surprise

When it comes to quality for this particular award the measurement has to do with the number of problems a car brand has per 100 vehicles. This would lead you to believe that there should be a luxury or premium brand leading this list each and every year. For the past 27 years this is certainly true and every year we’ve seen a luxury or premium brand that has been the top of the quality list to give us a brand of vehicles that we want to drive more than any others.

This year things are different though. This year the leader for initial quality is Kia which showed up with only 83 problems per 100 vehicles. This wasn’t an easy award for Kia to win as Porsche was close behind with 84 PP100, Hyundai with 92, Toyota with 93 and BMW with 94 to give you the top five on the list. These problems are ones owners faced within the first ninety days of owning a vehicle. It’s amazing that Kia was able to find a way to lead the way for this past year and offer us vehicles like the Kia Forte that are easier to enjoy right away more so than most others.

While we can certainly be impressed with Kia for achieving this level of quality the other end of the list offers you several brands at the bottom. Smart shows up with 216 PP100, Fiat has 174, Volvo comes in with 152, Land Rover shows up with 132 and Mini has 127 to be the bottom five of the list and the brands that need to find ways to improve in their overall initial quality. These five brands will hopefully improve over the next few years because they certainly have some of the models we love to enjoy.

Another segment to look at is the brands that have shown a great deal of improvement. These are the ones that have been on the low end of the spectrum but have found a way to come up on the list to be better than before. Chrysler and Jeep have both shown an improvement of 28 PP100. In fact the American automakers all performed well and for the first time in over thirty years combined to have averages that are better than the average of import brands. Every part of the industry is up over before and the quality is getting better each and every year.

As for some of the other JD Power awards, GM was able to win seven awards, Toyota took home six of them and Hyundai and Volkswagen each came away with four of these awards. This seems to be a theme that has been set forth by Kia being the best in initial quality for us to enjoy. As the premium and luxury brands are not able to win as many awards you just might see a change in the market over the next couple years, but for now the mainstream brands are able to carry the load and win the awards and the respect of the market.