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Kia Motors tops U.S. initial quality survey for second straight year

Kia Motors tops U.S. initial quality survey for second straight year

Posted June. 23, 2017 07:13,   

Updated June. 23, 2017 07:18

한국어
Kia Motors Corp. topped U.S. market research firm J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study for the second consecutive year, winning recognition for Hyundai Automotive Group’s “quality management.”

According to J.D. Power, Kia took the top spot in the 2017 Initial Quality Study with a total score of 72 among 33 brands surveyed. The lower the score is, the higher the ranking is in the J.D. Power study, which surveyed U.S. consumers who bought new vehicles between November 2016 and February 2017 in 233 quality categories.

Kia ranked first in last year’s survey, too, making itself the first South Korean carmaker to top the survey for two consecutive years. Kia also swept five segment awards – more than any other manufacturers. The Kia Forte (compact car), Cadenza (large car), Soul (compact multipurpose vehicle), Niro (small sports utility vehicle [SUV]), and Sorento (mid-size SUV) all took out their respective segments for initial quality.

The Genesis, the luxury brand of Hyundai Motor Co., Kia’s parent company, ranked second with a score of 77, outperforming other premium brands, including Porsche (third), Ford (fourth), Ram (fifth) and BMW (sixth). The Genesis, which was launched in the U.S. market in August last year as a separate brand, entered the survey for the first time this year. Hyundai ranked eight with a score of 88.

The latest survey is meaningful in that South Korean brands outperformed other automotive powerhouses such as Japan’s Nissan (10th), Toyota (14th) and Germany’s Volkswagen (11th) – brands that are considered high-quality imports in the Korean market.



Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com