THE QUALITY of Hyundai vehicles has improved markedly in the past year, underlining the South Korean carmaker's relative success during the motor industry slump, according to a closely watched survey published by JD Power, writes
BERNARD SIMONin Toronto
The California-based consultancy’s study, based on the number of new-vehicle defects after 90 days of ownership, puts Hyundai in fourth spot, behind three luxury brands – Lexus, Porsche and Cadillac.
Hyundai was placed 13th last year. Hyundai owners reported 95 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 114 last year. The survey covers 80,900 vehicle purchases. Other brands that have shown big quality improvements include Cadillac and Suzuki, which jumped from 32nd to ninth spot.
Jaguar fell by 20 places. It blamed the setback on a very small sample and “some minor glitches” during the launch of the XF, which it said had been rectified.
Ford’s luxury Lincoln brand, Nissan’s Infiniti, Pontiac and Audi also slipped markedly in this year’s rankings.
General Motors announced recently that it would shut the Pontiac division next year as part of its restructuring.
Three other brands that GM is disposing of – Saturn, Hummer and Saab – also ranked well below average.
Mini, owned by BMW, was at the bottom of the JD Power list, with 165 defects per 100 vehicles, little changed from last year.
Hyundai’s market share grew to 4.2 per cent in the first five months of this year from 2.9 per cent in January-May 2008, according to Autodata, a New Jersey-based market research firm.
Aaron Bragman, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said that Hyundai had been especially successful in taking market share from Toyota and Honda, whose strength is in the same small and mid-sized segment targeted by the Koreans.
“Their vehicles are noticeably improved from generation to generation,” Mr Bragman said.
Toyota dominated the JD Power quality rankings in individual segments, in spite of criticism that the carmaker’s rapid growth prior to the recession had undermined its vaunted “continuous improvement” management philosophy.
– FT Service