For 27 years, the top spot of the JD Power Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for new cars in the United States has been dominated by luxury brands, but one mainstream manufacturer has managed to break the hegemony in the 2016 survey – and surprise, surprise, it’s a Korean brand. Kia, to be exact.
Kia secured the #1 spot with just 83 problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100), beating out Porsche (84 PP100), Hyundai (92 PP100), Toyota (93 PP100) and BMW (94 PP100); the brand ranked second behind Porsche last year. All five racked up far fewer problems than the national industry average of 105 PP100, itself an improvement over the 112 PP100 reported in 2015.
According to CNBC, JD Power vice president of US automotive quality Renee Stephens attributed Kia’s strong performance in the surveys to the brand’s focus on “cleaner” new model launches – the source of many teething problems – adding that its factories and dealers in the US are producing better vehicles.
“Ten years ago they were on the other end [of the rankings] and they’ve been slowly moving up, and moving up by leaps and bounds in the last few years,” she said.
Kia Motors America chief operating officer Michael Sprague said that the stellar ranking “is the result of Kia’s decade-long focus on craftsmanship and continuous improvement, and reflects the voice of our customers, which is the ultimate affirmation.”
That focus on new car quality perhaps came at a price, however – Kia placed a lowly 17th in JD Power’s longer-term Vehicle Dependability Survey (VDS) released earlier this year, which measures problems experienced over a three-year period, rather than just 90 days for IQS. It scored 153 PP100, slightly above the industry average of 152 PP100.
Kia’s performance this year is indicative of mainstream brands in general, receiving fewer complaints from owners than luxury brands. One of the key reasons for the upward trend for the industry as a whole is the improvement in infotainment systems – hitherto the biggest source of customer dissatisfaction – with newer models becoming simpler and coming with fewer glitches.
“Manufacturers are simplifying their controls to only show those controls that are most relevant to consumers,” Stephens said.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Sam Loo and Albert can kolos shop, now that kimchi has taken the one and only remaining USP for toyota.
Now their toyotas is only value for Nirvana cuz no sane person will choose a toyota ever again. Except for these toyota salesmen.
Kia and Hyundai started just about 10 years before Proton did. The actual manufacturing of cars. See where Hyundai and Kia is now.
Hyundai sells about 10 million cars per annum
Kia is no No 1 Brand. Above Porsche! I reear again, above Porsche!. Hyundai is No 3 in the list.
Proton on the other hand, struggles selling even 100,000 cars per annum. And this is despite, 90% of their orders come from the Malaysian Government Ministries and Departments trying to help keep Proton alive.
If our Government does not help boost up Proton’s sales, it will hardly sell even 30,000 cars per annum.
Now see how the Koreans have done it. Why for 40 years, Proton has not achieved such good sales and good ratings like Kia and Hyundai JD Power sales and ratings??
Proton not only have sucked about RM20 billion (official figure), in actual fact, Proton has sucked over RM100b of rakyat’s money and yet they cannot produce excellent results like Kia or Hyundai.
Post as much as u like. Nobody gonna come to ur toyota showroom anymore. Better u kolos shop now instead of P1.
Kimchi no RV Proton no quality. Again it is proven.
Takata airbags no quality, nuff said
Meanwhile toyota only remaining is gerenti for early afterlife
My son saga is more reliable than this junk kimchi please.
Soon, we’ll have an Asean JD Power survey…(just like shitty Asean NCAP)
Perodua Rank No.1
Proton Rank No.2
Test based purely on reliability of power windows and air-cond cooling efficiency.
You know? In Malaysia, KIA is no RV!
Where is my favourite Proton?
KIA USA give 10 years car warranty.
What nonsense are you talking about?
This topic discuss about initial quality of the cars sold. Not about warranty. In this aspect it’s about how many problems owners face per 100 cars @ PP100
Proton is not here cause their workers are like MAS workers. They are sleeping most of the time.
MAS Union chief told the whole world that all Malaysians like to sleep during work hours and it is our right to sleep. Foreigners do not understand our culture.
It might be a euphemism la. Sleeping on the job = not doing your job.
Boring…! It’s not even applicable to CorruptoLand…
Inb4 anyone mistaken me for the real Sam Loo…
Where’s sam loo???
Next year will be Proton Perdana. Go Go Go Proton.
Then is go go honda…. not perdana…. Malu lah, buka bonnet engine…. Honda!!!!!!!
Eh, your jepunis overlord oso toyota also does rebadging, what say you?
Malaysian brain death, only knew the past 30 years bull story
BMW outranks Audi & Mercedes-Benz. Sweet!
Progress.. Let those RV fanatics eat dust
If you’re a smart consumer, you’ll get a fairly new (1 yr, <10k km) 2nd hand Kia at a very good price. Perhaps the only bad thing is that fuel consumption is very high
Still with the my aunty’s grandma daughter story. It’s 2016 already, get out of your cave
True. Fuel consumption not an issue see fuelly for real world statistics. Preve highest fc
True to the brands slogan, ” The Power To Surprise “. Who would have thought that Kia today would be the No.1 brand for reliability. Can’t be a typo error as its proven by the JD Power survey. Well done Kia, keep up the good work!
You do realise this doesn’t apply to Bolehland where consumers don’t enjoy any consumer protection.
Saddled with our tidak apa attitude and “sleep on the job” culture (not my words mind you) and you wonder why we generally have more poorly built cars.
Even luxury brands are not immune to shoddily put together cars here.
We do have P1 protection
We do have toyota gerenti for early afterlife
Not as early as Proton
Now kimchi both topped the list. Sushi kalah already. Come to hyundai and kia showroom now you wont regret. Cheap reliable many tech nice drive what else do you want
Typical Malaysians are dumb to the core…
US ≠ Malaysia…!
If that is your theory, made in malaysia sushi also useless….so don’t promote your toyota here
Well done to KIA USA. At lest they use quality parts for their CKD products. Wheres Malaysia using crap local quality parts for their CKD products.
Haha! Padan muka shameful to Sam Loo and all the anti-Koreans bashers!
My next car will be a Porsche then .. still not Korean, no thank you
Does Malaysia has some ranking as such? Just for Malaysia market to boost up Proton or Perodua’s sales?
FYI Proton did ranked in JD Power customer satisfaction
For long term reliability reports.
http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2016-us-vehicle-dependability-study-vds
Toyota is number 4.
Actually, the U.S. manufactured Hyundais and Kias are very reliable, I daresay better than some Japanese brands. The American market is actually Hyundai’s ‘saviour’… had Hyundai’s cars not sold as well as they did in America during the 80s and 90s, Hyundai would’ve went bankrupt along with Kia, Daewoo and Samsung Auto. It was because of vast sales in America that Hyundai Group managed to survive and buy over rival Kia after the 1997 crisis.
Actually, not many know this, but Proton had their own plans for the U.S. market, and indeed, Proton made left-hand drive C21/2 Sagas for export to the USA in the late 80s. Unfortunately, as it would seem, the American partner company, Proton America Incorporated (PAI) could not secure the necessary legal rights/ paperwork… so the whole project was shelved indefinitely.
If I’m not mistaken, Mitsubishi Motors (Japan) was not very keen on letting Proton export the Saga to America, as MMC was already selling well there (unlike the U.K.), and the cheaper Proton Saga will surely undermine Mitsubishi’s own models in the U.S.. In fact, when Proton started exports to the U.K. in 1989, Proton U.K.’s sales consistently surpassed Mitsubishi U.K.’s sales… all with just one model, the C21/2 Saga.
Eventually, Mitsubishi partnered with another American company (Chrysler), and the U.S. got their own ‘Proton Saga’… that is the Dodge Colt (a rebadged Mitsu Colt… sister car to the Saga and Wira)… the MMC-Chrysler project went under the name of Diamond Star Motors (DSM). Mitsubishi closed their U.S. plant just half-a-year back… had Proton managed to enter the U.S. in the late 80s as planned… what could have happened ?
Anyway… I’m just rambling here, don’t mind me, but I think the point is clear; if a car company wants to succeed, they must find their place in the American market… the 3rd (or 4th ?) largest in the world.
The US market is a finicky one. One that even Mitsubishi has trouble staying afloat.
Proton would have little hope in surviving there. They may get a good start, but with proton’s slow progress, they would not have kept up with market requirements.
Actually, the Chrysler and MMC tie up started way back in the 80s and did fairly well in the beginning with rebadged Mitsubishi models being well equipped, well built and good performing (I had 5 cars from this Chrysler/MMC/DSM tie-up, so I know how good they were). It went south in 93 when Mitsubishi couldn’t keep up with producing updated models. They lost their bread and butter Mid Sized sedan market when they couldn’t update their Galant models and were surpassed by the Accord and Camry.
Chrysler on the other hand was championing their own compact entry, the Neon and dropping the Lancer/Colt based compacts against the Civic and Corolla.
So that left Mitsubishi with very little market share and eventually they went bust.
The DSM factory ended up making low volume Sebrings, Cirrus, Stratus sedans and even more low volume Avenger and Talon/Eclipse coupes, with the late to the market and uncompetitive Galant taking up most of the production after Chrysler and MMC split up in the mid 90s.
If Mitsubishi can starve itself to death, then the US market is far more complicated than one thinks.
where are you sam loo?
Toyota itself beat Lexus in the chart. Make sense??
And nevermind Kia, Hyundai is also in 3rd, beating Toyota.
I wonder if it is the same quality as the KIA sold in Malaysia?
Its not
Guaranteed NOT…
i used to own kia spectra5 hatchback.
Never had major problem but then again its mileage was less than 100k km (9 years).
Now NAZA kia will import their first a few batch unit from korea then sell it as CKD.
that why their prices is now on par as honda jazz or honda city (our currency is weak oso).
Meanwhile Maserati VW and Italian Maserati have to partner with Sam tow truck and lost his wife due to car always breakdown.
Poor Maserati still have to spend weekend at VW mechanic and blow water how many car he tapow but instead his car spend more time in workshop than people puasa in a month.
Enjoy your Dsg Selalu Gagal.
Wont happen in Malaysia as the Spec for the local market Sucks!!!
Can you tell me which model of Kia has different spec than local market? Some model Naza request to cut down in order to bring down the price but again there are high end models available always. I owned a CKD Forte and the car is identical like the one in Korea, for example my car do have aircond heater and aircond vent under the both front seats. This is for the purpose of winter season where the temperature can turn up to 32 degree., though we don’t need it. Kia should have cut it down but they remain it as same spec as their Korea local market. Is Kia treat Msia local market “suck”? Please get your facts right rather than bluffing and be keyboard warrior. From a truly Kia car owner.
WTF are you talking about? We even have panoramic roof, all the airbags etc
meanwhile Sam loo hide in his son`s proton saga.
If you had a KIA or Hyundai from 2010 onwards, I would say they are pretty reliable when compared to the Japanese. Parts availability is also much improved due to Mobis.
If there is anything that stopped Malaysians from buying them would be the sad image of KIA and Hyundai sales and service center. Personally I had my own share of stories to tell with my Sonata but none that cant be solved. However the authorised service center and even the HQ in Glenmarie is not one bit interested and instead resort to their idiocy when trying to answer customer’s enquiry.
Of course that didnt stop me from buying my first car which is another Korean car in the form of KIA Rio. I’m very surprised that KIA had much better authorised service center than the official one managed by Naza. I went once to the branch in Kota Damansara and was told they only had junior technicians there. Some forumers that had problem which couldnt be solved by Naza–run SC are finding solutions at some of the more competitive authorised service center.
I think KIA and Hyundai would fare a lot better if Malaysia is open market. In the current state of affair, I have to say we dont have a choice due to cronyism.
Sometimes I don’t understand why many people said Korean car not reliable. Those who have doubt please go around the outside car service or repair shop to find out is Korean car reliable or not. No doubt the spare part is an issue in the past but it is much easy to get them and mostly are genuine part rather than imitate or non original like certain Japanese brand. Korean car is weak in RV and fuel consumption is so so only. However fuel consumption is not that terrible, 1.6 Forte is getting RM0.17 per km in current RM1.70 per litre ron95. It was measure by my latest receipt RM43 for 250km, 50% city 50% highway. Fuel consumption guarantee better than Gen2 1.6 (my previous car) and Waja 1.6 Mitsubishi engine (my house second car).
I think Naza is not interested to expand or improve their customer experience judging from their lack of branding awareness campaign.
Sebab ramai kt luar sn dealer toyota..nissan n honda xnk tutup kedai kl naza naik..naza mim punya nissan..toyota..honda cha yg punya..yg kutuk kia kt luar tu ramai dealer..ramaila kaum mim ni pcaya gila2 citer RV kereta kimchi xde ape
Kenapa….setiap kali Brand lain. dapat pengiktirafan yg jadi mangsa adalah PROTON. Mana-mana yg suka kondem..apa kata duduk dan kerja bahagian rekabentuk. Apa cam??? ada brann??
Sekurang-kurang nya kita masih ada jenama kita sendiri. Pada saya, Proton masih perlu banyak belajar daripada kesilapan yg lalu.
Sikap…yg suka kondem biasanya satu sikap yg suka menuding pada orang. Padahal itulah kesilapan diri sendiri. Setakat ini, proton ada juga kemajuan..dan hanya dengan sedikit kemajuan itu, jgn terus rasa puashati. Belajar dan perlu belajar lagi. Belajar dari Syarikat jenama lain..ambil contoh yg boleh di guna pakai dan di adaptasi dalam PROTON ITU sendiri.
I’m Malaysian also maa….saya bangga jadi orang Malaysia. Saya juga mahu PROTON maju..dan saya percaya PROTON akan berada di kemuncak suatu hari nanti…jika mahu berubah bukan berubah-ubah.
Syabas PROTON.
Chill your ass down, this is only applies to Kia USA, Kia in Malaysia is CKD which is basically shit.
That’s a lol. Very littleknowledge of cars on display.
In that graph, Volkswagen more reliable than… honda, merc and Audi????
Someone is hallucinating.