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Genesis, Kia, and Hyundai top J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study

Genesis, Kia, and Hyundai top J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study

Posted June. 21, 2019 07:28,   

Updated June. 21, 2019 07:28

한국어

Three South Korean automobile brands – Genesis of the Hyundai Motor Group, Kia Motors, and Hyundai Motor Company – swept the top three positions for two years in a row in an annual quality survey of new cars by J.D. Power, a well-known U.S. market research company. As the three brands have maintained top ranks in a survey of U.S. customers, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have shown the sign of sales recovery with their market shares over eight percent for two consecutive months in the U.S.

Hyundai Motor Group reported on Thursday that its luxury automobile brand Genesis was ranked No. 1 overall for two consecutive years in the 2019 Initial Quality Study by J.D. Power released on Wednesday.

The Genesis’ ranking of 63 problems per 100 vehicles this year is an improvement by five problems compared to the previous year and is lower than Porsche of Germany ranked 15th and Lexus of Japan ranked 8th in the premium brand category. There is also a significant gap between the Genesis and premium brand No. 2 Lincoln with 84 problems per 100 vehicles. In addition, the Genesis G70 was selected as the highest-quality model of the year in the compact premium car category.

Kia Motors took the No. 1 position with 70 problems per 100 vehicles in the mass market brand category and was ranked No. 2 overall after the Genesis. Kia Motors has kept its top position for five years in a row in the mass market brand category. The automobile company’s four models, including its compact sedan K3 (aka Forte in the U.S. market) and compact SUV Sportage, also received awards for their highest quality respectively in each car segment.

Hyundai Motor with 71 problems per 100 vehicles appeared in the No. 2 spot among mass market brands and in the No. 3 position overall. The Santa Fe of Hyundai Motor is also the winner of the highest-quality model of the year in the mid-sized SUV category for two consecutive years.

“Our newly-launched cars have clearly proved their quality competitiveness and were ranked in the top positions in the infotainment category, including voice recognition and Bluetooth,” said a representative of Hyundai Motor Group. “We are expecting to see a higher score in the car durability survey of customers who have driven same car models for three years,” the representative added. Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors were ranked No. 8 and No. 10, respectively, among 31 brands in the durability test released earlier this year by J.D. Power.


Do-Hyong Kim dodo@donga.com