For the second straight year, Porsche ranked the highest among all car companies in the J.D. Power 2014 Initial Quality Study.
The IQS, which is currently on year 28, studies the different problems that car owners go through upon buying the car and until 90 days thereafter. The initial quality is obtained by tallying how many problems are experienced for every 100 cars (PP100), so a lower score shows a higher initial quality for the car manufacturer.
Porsche had the highest score of 74 PP100 in the 2014 study, followed by Jaguar with 87 PP100, Lexus with 92 PP100 and Hyundai with 94 PP100.
The study discovered that average initial quality overall increased by 3 percent from 113 PP100 last year to 116 PP100 this year. The decrease in initial quality corresponds to the trend in the J.D. Power U.S. 2014 Vehicle Dependability Study, which studies the problems that car owners experience after three whole years of owning a car. According to the VDS, there has been a similar decrease in vehicle dependability.
The IQS attributes to the overall decline of the initial quality of cars to two factors. The first factor is that newly developed technologies being introduced to vehicles have left some customers struggling to understand how they work and how best to use them as car makers look to introduce these new features flawlessly.
"However, almost all automakers are struggling to do this flawlessly with some consumers indicating that the technology is hard to understand, difficult to use, or simply does not always work as designed," said J.D. Power vice president of global automotive David Sargent.
Newly released cars garnered an average score of 128 PP100, compared to the lower 113 PP100 average score of carryover cars. Most of the problems experienced in new vehicles are concerning voice recognition technology, Bluetooth connections and audio systems.
The second factor for the overall decline in initial quality is the number of problems caused by harsh weather, which affects the three areas of heating/ventilation/air conditioning, engine/transmission and exterior.
"Heating and ventilation systems have more work to do, engines and transmissions aren't as smooth when cold, and exterior moldings and paint all take some punishment. Consumers generally understand this but still report problems when their vehicle does not wholly live up to their expectations," Sargent said.
While Porsche ended up with the top score in initial quality, it was General Motors that came away with the most number of segment awards for the second straight year.
The 2014 IQS gathered responses from 86,000 vehicle owners and lessees of new 2014 model-year cars after their first 90 days of owning the vehicle, collected between February and May of this year.
