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According to Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea,

South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp. topped the annual J.D. Power consumer survey on new-vehicle quality in the United States while its bigger affiliate Hyundai Motor Co. moved up to the third rank.

Kia became the first from the non-premium league in 27 years to top the survey dubbed as Initial Quality Study (IQS) of consumer research firm J.D. Power now in its 30th year.

The firm surveyed new car buyers between last November and February period to find out the number of problems occurred over the first 90 days of ownership. Initial quality was determined by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100) with a lower score reflecting higher quality.

Kia outperformed every automaker with a score of 83 PP100, one fewer than Porsche. It had been second last year. Its Soul and Sportage claimed the top place in the Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) and Small Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) segments, respectively, scoring 72 and 85 each.

Hyundai Motor ranked third with a score of 92 PP100, up a notch from the previous year. The last time it ranked so high was in 2006 when it also came in third.

A Hyudai Motor Group official proudly pointed out that both Hyundai and Kia have elbowed out leading luxury makers in Europe, Japan and the United States including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti and Cadillac in the U.S. consumer survey.

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Jun. 23, 2016)