First non-luxury car brand ever now tops JP Power quality study...

[krell]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/car ... UU1gFyOSZw

[KuroNekko]

I don't trust JP Power studies largely because they aren't longitudinal studies and they are also paid for by auto companies for consumer research. Hence, this study measures "Initial Quality"; an index that's more helpful for automakers than consumers. It basically asks consumers of new cars in their first few months of ownership how they like the car and what, if any, problems they've experienced. While it's impressive that Kia took the top spot, it's really no indication that a Kia will be more reliable or durable than other brands many years down the road. This study doesn't measure that. Hence, Jaguar has ranked among the top 3 in these rankings in the past but their cars are notorious for being unreliable and costly to fix.
While Kias have improved greatly over the last 15 years, I can't say I've seen many examples in high mileage to show that these things have long term reliability and durability. Meanwhile, there are many examples of Toyotas, Hondas, GMs, and Fords with 300,000+ miles and still running.
Studies like "Initial Quality" get overly involved in things like infotainment usability that it greatly takes away from a real measure of quality that most consumers care about.

[FrankoLaMoya]

Agreed with KuroNekko...initial quality does not mean reliability. I heard Kia is fairly better than in the past, but it is still not Honda, Toyota or Suzuki. On top of that, I never liked J.D. Power either for the same reasons stated above.

[Ronzuki]

I always send a single piece of paper back in the envelope, instead of their completed survey, requesting them to send me a questionnaire in a year when I can waste my time telling them what I really think about a car. They never respond. Initial quality...what a joke...had better be superb else get out of the automobile business.

[golftango]

I had a 2011 Kia Optima. Only non-scheduled dealer visit was to address an inop steering wheel radio volume button. Other than that, just oil changes and tire rotations in 55K miles.