Vehicle quality overall is getting gradually better, according to J.D. Power’s new Initial Quality Study, but in some areas, namely infotainment and telematics, ratings from consumers are stagnating as engineers and designers seek to crowd more and more controls on to center touchscreens – a phenomenon known as “menu bloat.”
Infotainment in the firm’s broader ranking improved by 1.9 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), a small gain, yet remains the most problematic vehicle category in the study at 42.6 PP100, Power says in a statement. “While half of the top problems industry-wide remain infotainment issues, 11 infotainment problems (categories) show improvement from a year ago. However, owners are having more touchscreen-related problems due to the inclusion of non-audio-related features like climate controls, garage door openers and even glove box releases,” Power says.
“While customers do find the larger touchscreens visually appealing, their functionality within the vehicle is an increasing source of frustration,” says Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power. “Customers are having to tap and swipe through multiple screens to access key vehicle functions like climate settings and built-in garage door openers. Owners find these things to be overly complicated and too distracting to use while driving. By retaining dedicated physical controls for some of these interactions, automakers can alleviate pain points and simplify the overall customer experience.”
Lexus topped all makes with a score of 166 PP100. Among premium brands, Jaguar (175 PP100) ranks second and Genesis (183 PP100) ranks third. Among mass-market brands, Nissan ranks highest with a score of 169 PP100. Hyundai (173 PP100) ranks second and Chevrolet (178 PP100) ranks third.
Other highlights of the study:
General Motors topped all parent companies with five awards – Buick Encore GX, Cadillac XT5, Chevrolet Blazer, Chevrolet Silverado and Chevrolet Tahoe, followed by Ford’s four awards – Ford Escape, Ford F-150, Ford Mustang and Ford Super Duty, and Honda Motor Company’s three awards – Acura Integra, Acura RDX and Honda Odyssey.
Volkswagen has the highest-ranking model overall, the Porsche 911, with 116 PP100.
While Nissan ranks as top mass-market brand, the Japanese automaker, currently going through management change and much financial distress, only managed to top two of the vehicle segments: Sentra sedan in the Compact Car segment, and Altima in the midsize sedan category.
Tesla, which Power sets apart with Rivian as the only 100% electric-vehicle sellers with enough sales volume to be rated, scored 200 PP100, equal to Toyota and Cadillac. Rivian, however, had the worst score among any automaker at 274 PP100.
The bottom of the ranking among brands that sell both ICE and electric vehicles belongs to Volkswagen Group’s Audi brand at 269 PP100.
The Power study also singles out quality at manufacturing plants. Plant quality awards are based solely on defects and malfunctions and exclude design-related problems and repair incidents. BMW AG’s Graz (Magna Steyr-BMW), Austria, plant, which manufactures the BMW Z4, receives the Platinum Plant Quality Award. Gold Plant Quality Awards for North/South America, in a tie, go to Toyota’s Cambridge South plant in Ontario, Canada, which produces the Lexus RX, and Toyota’s Georgetown 3, KY, plant, which produces the Lexus ES. The Gold Plant Quality Award for Asia Pacific goes to Toyota’s Tahara plant in Japan, which produces the Lexus IS, Lexus LS and Lexus NX.
Somewhat surprising, notes Power’s Hanley, is the study’s finding that automakers are regressing on cupholder design. Automakers have been focused on, and often tout, the number of cupholders they put into a vehicle, especially in large family SUVs and minivans. But it’s the design of the cupholders that is failing customers. “While it seemed like manufacturers had cupholders figured out, given that owners are now bringing more reusable containers into their vehicles, manufacturers are struggling to keep up with being able to accommodate all the different shapes and sizes that are increasingly available,” says Hanley. Consequently, owners are again citing more problems in this area, with the expectation that their vehicle should be able to hold different sizes of containers.
Failure to Launch
Perhaps because today’s vehicles have so much more technology with which consumers must interface, new-model launches carry big quality issues. New-model launches, notes the Power study, accounted for the highest number of problems (203 PP100) since the study was redesigned in 2020, compared with 190 PP100 for carryover models. Of the 18 new models launched this year, only two had fewer problems than their respective segment average.
“Typically, problems for new launches are balanced with some being successful and others having issues,” Hanley says. “This year, however, new launches are notably more problematic.” The good news for the new launches is that they require fewer repair visits than the carryover models.
For more information about the U.S. Initial Quality Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/us-initial-quality-study-iqs.
