Kia has claimed the top spot in a survey of new vehicle quality for the second straight year.
Genesis — a luxury brand owned by Hyundai Motor Co. — was second in J.D. Power's annual initial quality survey. This marks the first time in the survey's 30-year history that two Korean brands have topped the list, a spokesman for J.D. Power said.
Porsche, Ford and Ram rounded out the top five. The lowest ranking brands were Fiat, Jaguar, Volvo, Mitsubishi and Land Rover.
The survey questioned 80,000 owners of 2017 model year vehicles about the problems they had in the first 90 days of ownership. Owners were most likely to complain about technology, including poor voice recognition systems, clunky navigation and problems pairing smartphones to their cars.
Kia owners had 72 problems per 100 vehicles, helping it hold on to the top spot in the survey.
Kia also was among the top five brands in Consumer Reports' annual reliability survey published last fall. Consumer Reports' auto testing director, Jake Fisher, says one reason Kia does well in such surveys is that it uses time-tested older technology from its sister brand, Hyundai. Brands with a lot of new vehicles or new technology tend to slip in the rankings.
