American analytical company J.D. Power has published a new car quality rating for 2023. Alas, the growth in the number of electronic components has led to the fact that there are more and more claims from owners for new cars. Meanwhile, there are brands that are making significant progress in terms of quality: this year, the rating of brands was headed by the alumni of the Stellantis corporation – Dodge, Ram and Alfa Romeo, and the best car was recognized as Nissan Maxima.
Rating quality of new J.D. Power should not be confused with the reliability rating from the same organization: they have a similar methodology for collecting and analyzing data, but the quality rating examines new cars, and the reliability rating examines machines that are three years old, both ratings are updated every year.
The latest Quality Ranking released this week is based on a survey of 93,380 U.S. respondents who bought or rented 2023 vehicles. Each respondent answered 223 questions divided into nine categories: exterior, interior, seats, multimedia system, climate control, secondary ergonomics (switches, screens, joysticks, etc.), driver assistants, driving experience, powertrain. From the answers, a PP100 rating was formed, showing the number of identified problems per 100 vehicles – accordingly, the lower the PP100, the better.
The average PP100 this year was 192points, which is 12 points more than in 2022 and 30 points more than in 2021. J.D. Experts Power attribute the deterioration of the average quality level to the mass digitalization of new cars, sometimes completely redundant. So, for example, drivers began to complain much more often about door handles, because manufacturers began to complicate them, put sliding mechanisms and touch keys – modern electric vehicles are especially guilty of this.
Also, manufacturers are now generously equipping cars with electronic driver assistants, but these assistants do not always work correctly and sometimes they annoy the driver more than they help him: most of all complaints about the lane keeping system, automatic emergency braking system and collision risk warning.
The connection between the driver's smartphone and the car's operating system still does not always work well, wireless charging of the smartphone often causes criticism (complaints about overheating, inconvenient location of the tray, interruption of charging).
Below is a ranking of brands from best to worst, this year the leaders were Dodge (140 PP100), Ram (141 PP100), and Alfa Romeo (143PP100). For comparison, let's say that Dodge had a good rating last year (143 PP100), but Ram and Alfa Romeo somehow miraculously made a real breakthrough – in 2022 their quality rating was 186 PP100 and 211 PP100, respectively.
In the original publication of J.D. Power also presented the best models in terms of quality in each class of cars, the absolute leader was the Nissan Maxima sedan. Class leaders (in the American sense, the breakdown may seem strange) are as follows: small cars – Kia Rio, small premium cars – Audi A3, small SUVs – Buick Encore GX, small premium SUVs – Audi Q3, compact cars – Kia Forte, compact premium passenger cars – Lexus IS, compact SUVs – Chevrolet Equinox, compact premium SUVs – Alfa Romeo Stelvio, compact sports cars – Mini Cooper, Mid Size Cars – Toyota Camry, Mid Size Premium Cars – Kia Stinger, Mid Size SUVs – Nissan Murano, Mid Size premium SUVs – Lexus GX, mid-size sports cars – Chevrolet Camaro, premium sports cars – Chevrolet Corvette, larger mid-size premium cars – Genesis G80, larger midsize SUVs – Toyota 4Runner, larger midsize premium SUVs – Cadillac XT6, large premium passenger cars – BMW 8 Series b>, large SUVs – Chevrolet Tahoe, large premium SUVs – Cadillac Escalade, mid-size pickups – Ford Ranger, large pickups – Ram 1500, minivans – Kia Carnival.
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