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The quality of new vehicles improved 6 percent, the largest increase since 2009, according to the recent 2016 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. And the good news for consumers is that more affordable non-premium brands had fewer problems than more expensive premium brands for the first time since 2006.
“Non-premium brands are adding a lot of new technology,” said Renee Stephens, vice president of U.S. automotive quality at J.D. Power. And it is advanced technology, such as blind-spot monitoring, low-speed collision avoidance, navigation systems, voice recognition, and touchscreens, which can and have caused problems. However, in this case, the non-premium brands are delivering the technology in a way that’s intuitive to use and with quality, she said.
There used to be a mindset among consumers that, if they were going to get more features and function, they would have to pay extra for them.
The study, which is now in its 30th year, looks at problems owners experience during the first 90 days of ownership. It covers “design” problems as well as “defects and malfunctions.” Initial quality is determined by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles, or PP100. The lower the score, the higher the quality.
The study is based on 233 questions organized into eight problem categories such as interior, exterior, driving experience, engine and audio / communication / entertainment / navigation (ACEN). It is based on 80,000 owner responses and included 245 vehicle models.