Annual Initial Quality Study identifies multiple contributors to continuing decline in automotive quality.
Apparently, Kenny Rogers was right, at least when it comes to commercial vehicles:
“They don’t make them like they used to.”
The latest Initial Quality Study (IQS) from J.D. Power has found that the industry average for the number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) rose by a record 30 PP100 over the past two years: 12 PP100 more than in 2022, which was 18 PP100 more than 2021. As a result, the industry average for 2023 is 192 PP100. That’s right: nearly two problems per vehicle.
“The automotive industry is facing a wide range of quality problems, a phenomenon not seen in the 37-year history of the IQS,” said Frank Hanley, J.D. Power’s senior director of auto benchmarking, in a release. “From persistent problems carrying over from years past to an increase in new types of problems, today’s new vehicles are more complex—offering new and exciting technology—but not always satisfying owners.”
According to the report, major contributing factors to the decline in quality and increase in the number of problems include:
- Greater usage of new technologies
- Continued integration of problematic audio systems into new models
- Poor sounding horns
- Cup holders that don’t serve their purpose
- New models with 11 PP100 more than carryover models.
This year’s results come from a survey of 93,380 respondents who either purchased or leased 2023 model-year vehicles. Between February and May of this year, participants were asked to respond to 223 questions organized into nine vehicle categories: infotainment, features, controls and displays, exterior, driving assistance, interior, powertrain; seats, driving experience and climate.
What’s particularly notable is that problems with driving experience remained flat year-over-year, though quality declined in all other categories. Not surprisingly, given the note about new technologies causing issues, the largest year-over-year increases in PP100 were in controls and displays (+3.2 PP100) and infotainment (+2.3 PP100).
If it is Broke…
As hard as it is to believe, door handles are a growing problem area for new vehicles. According to the report, owners are having issues with automakers’ attempts to make this basic functionality more high-tech. This may be due to the manufacturers emulating Tesla’s designs, which seems supported by the fact that electric vehicles count for seven of the ten models struggling most with this issue.
Driver assistance features—namely, forward-collision warning, lane-keeping assistance, lane-departure warning and blind spot warning—are also increasingly problematic, with 80% of owners reporting that their new vehicles include all four features even as the category increased 1.8 PP100 year-over-year.
Another feature seeing marked declines in quality is wireless charging pads, up 1.1 PP100 from 2022. “This is the area where manufacturers really have the opportunity to delight customers with this convenience, but instead are creating a problem for them,” Hanley said.
Tesla Among Automotive Quality’s Biggest Losers
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any seasoned quality engineer that the worst performers in this year’s report are also the newest kids on the block. Tesla Motors has 257 PP100 (up 31 PP100), Polestar has 313 PP100 (down 15 PP100), Rivian Motors has 282 PP100 and Lucid Motors has a whopping 340 PP100. This is the first time the latter two have been included in the report. None of these four are officially ranked along with the major brands because they don’t meet J.D. Power’s ranking criteria. Nevertheless, it’s easy enough to infer where they would stand relative to the established players.
Speaking of which, Dodge came out as the highest-ranking brand for initial quality overall with a score of 140 PP100, Ram ranks second at 141 PP100 and Buick, at 162 PP100, ranks third. The top-performing premium brands are Alfa Romeo at 143 PP100 (a 68 PP100 improvement over last year), followed by Porsche (167 PP100) and Cadillac (170 PP100).
At the plant level, where the report focuses on defects and malfunctions while excluding design flaws, Toyota’s Tahara Lexus plant in Japan received the Platinum Plant Quality Award with just 27 PP100. The Gold Award for North/South America goes to General Motors’ San Luis, Potosi plant in Mexico with 29 PP100. The same scored earned BMW AG’s plant in Born, Netherlands the top honor for Europe/Africa.
Unfortunately, these few silver linings at the plant level belie the broader struggles the industry as a whole is facing. With ongoing global supply chain issues, economic and political instabilities and the ever-present threat of climate change, automakers would be well served to consider whether the next generations of vehicles really needs more innovation at the cost of quality.
