Mazda Is Most Improved Brand In New 2018 J.D. Power Quality Study

Mazda is the most improved vehicle brand for quality according to a new study released by J.D. Power and Associates. The new study is the 2018 Initial Quality Study (IQS). It measures how many quality-related issues are reported by new car owners in the first ninety days of ownership.

According to the study, "Mazda is the most-improved brand, with owners reporting 25 PP100 fewer problems than in 2017." That is a huge improvement given that the average overall is 93 PP100. The metric "PP100" is the number of problems reported by owners per 100 vehicles. Mazda's score of 100 indicates that owners report just one problem for every 100 new Mazdas in the first three months of ownership. Another way to look at that is if you own a Mazda, the chances are 99 out of 100 that you will not have any problems with your new vehicle.

In this year's study, Mazda leaped ahead of low-volume competitors Volkswagen and Subaru. However, the most notable brand that Mazda passed is Honda. On the premium side of the business, Audi, Volvo, Land Rover, and Jaguar all have poorer quality scores reported in this study.

The study found that the many infotainment problems seem to be slowing its rate of growth and that most vehicle areas are seeing improvement. Dave Sargent, Vice President of Global Automotive at J.D. Power, said, “As we look to the future, avoiding problems with safety and driver assistance technology is critical. In an era of increasingly automated vehicles, vehicle owners have to be comfortable using foundational technologies like lane keep assistance and collision avoidance. Otherwise, automakers will not easily overcome consumer resistance to fully automated (driverless) cars.”

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