JD Power confirms Kia's rapid gains in vehicle quality

An influential annual survey of new cars has confirmed Kia's rapid gains in vehicle quality. The 2005 JD Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) in the United States reports two significant developments for Kia.

There was a 13-point improvement overall, across its model range, and a 64-point gain for the new C-Segment Cerato, which was rated second most improved car of 2005. The IQS ranks vehicles by recording "problems per 100 units".

The Cerato's 64-point gain in quality also enabled it to claim the runner-up place in the Compact Car category with a score of 100 problems per 100 cars, just behind the Toyota Prius and beating both the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla - as well as runner-up position in the "most improved car" rankings.

Kia has made steady improvements in its overall IQS score over the past three years and the 2005 ranking rates Kia's new vehicle quality above many famous brands, including Volvo, Porsche, Volkswagen, Land Rover, Mazda and Suzuki.

The JD Power IQS survey is regarded as the industry benchmark for new-vehicle quality. For 2005, more than 62,000 users of new cars in the US were contacted 90 days after taking delivery.

They were asked to rate their vehicles through 135 topics in nine major segments, including ride, handling and braking behaviour, and engine and transmission performance, as well as a broad range of areas related to build quality.

The auto industry average score in 2005 was 118 problems per 100 vehicles - down from 176 in 1998 - so the user of an 'average' vehicle would have experienced just 1.18 problems.

The Kia Carnival MPV showed impressive quality gains by recording a 32-point improvement in its IQS score.

"Quality management is an ongoing top priority at Kia," commented Yong-Hwan Kim, senior executive vice-president and COO of Kia Motors Corporation. "We are making every possible effort to become an industry leader in quality by offering customers the most reliable cars with top build-quality. The hard work and dedication of all Kia Motors employees to exceed customers' expectations is driven by an unrelenting passion for quality improvement.

"The success is now being reflected by consumer surveys like the latest JD Power IQS study. In fact, our overall nameplate quality has now surpassed some famous long-established European and Japanese brands."