• by Karl Greenberg , June 17, 2015

Trophies matter in the car industry. Sure, racing trophies are nice, but they don’t move metal like the round one in the glass arch. Yes, folks, it's time for the J.D. Power IQS (Initial Quality Study), and it guarantees a lot of press releases and Tier II ads with the JDP trophies featured somewhere, somehow. The study looks at the number of problems that owners of new vehicles report in the first three months of ownership. It is a proxy for how well the vehicle is put together and how well the designers succeeded in filling it with surprises of the pleasant kind. 

The Korean automakers should be pleasantly surprised. Based on the number of problems reported per 100 new vehicles, Kia and Hyundai are on top. The Korean brands, together, lead the industry by a big margin, reporting just 90 problems per 100 vehicles, 11 points better than last year. It is also 22 fewer problems per hundred vehicles than the industry overall (which actually improved 3% versus last year.) The Japanese brands are below industry average for the first time in nearly three decades. 

Kia is actually right behind number-one overall Porsche, which is on top of the pyramid for the third year in a row. J.D. Power says it's the first time in the study's history that Kia has led all non-premium makes in initial quality. After Kia are Jaguar, Hyundai and Infiniti, rounding out the top five nameplates. Infiniti is one of the most improved brands in the study.

Also, for the first time, European brands -- with 113 problems reported per 100 vehicles -- surpassed Japanese brands (114), and domestic makes, which tied the Japanese for only a second time. More bad news for Japanese brands: this is the first time in the study's 30 years that cars and trucks from Japan had lower reported initial quality than the industry average. Only four of the 10 Japanese brands included in the study post an improvement.

Said Renee Stephens, VP of U.S. automotive quality at J.D. Power: “For so long, Japanese brands have been viewed by many as the gold standard in vehicle quality. Leading companies are not only stepping up the pace of improvements on existing models, but are also working up front to launch vehicles with higher quality and more intuitive designs.”

Hyundai Tucson was the top-ranked small SUV, while Chevy Equinox tied with Ford Escape for compact SUV. Kia’s Soul and Sorento won in the compact multipurpose vehicle and midsize SUV categories, respectively. Toyota Tacoma was the top-ranked midsize pickup and the large SUV winner was its Sequoia. And in the full-size pickup arena, Chevrolet Silverado wins. 

In terms of where the issues are, voice recognition and Bluetooth drove complaints. The firm says that most models in the IQS that have voice recognition systems had 10 or more problems per 100 vehicles related to the technology.

Rounding out the above-average list, starting with number six, after Infiniti: BMW, Chevrolet, Lincoln, Lexus, Toyota, Buick, Ford, Ram, Honda and Mercedes-Benz. At the bottom, are Volkswagen, Scion, Acura, Mitsubishi, Land Rover, Jeep, Subaru, Chrysler, Smart, and reporting 161 problems per 100 new vehicles sold: Fiat.