Add CategoryA newcomer has shocked the established car makers and risen to the top of trusted reliability rankings.
Luxury brand Genesis — the luxury offshoot of Hyundai — has topped the highly respected JD Power US Dependability survey, which is now in its 31st year. The research ranks the number of problems per 100 vehicles over a three-year ownership period.
While they’ll be popping champagne corks at Genesis, some of its luxury rivals have fared poorly in the ratings.
Land Rover and Jaguar ranked last and third last in the survey, while Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Audi both had below average scores.
No similar survey exists in Australia because unlike their counterparts in the United States, local executives refuse to share quality information with the public.
While the results are not universally representative of cars sold here — some are built in different factories — they are the best guide to brand quality Australian consumers have.
Genesis topped the survey with 89 problems per 100 vehicles during the past year.
The North American boss of Genesis, Mark Del Rosso, said the award showed the brand’s commitment to reliability.
“These awards, given years after these cars were initially sold, demonstrate our commitment to providing industry-leading reliability,” said Mr Del Ross.
The next best was Lexus with 100. Local favourite Toyota was also a winner coming in at fifth.
Some of the biggest improvers were Ford (126), Mazda (130) and Volkswagen (116) which dramatically reduced the number of issues compared to the past year.
Porsche and BMW also scored well with 113 and 123.
Land Rover and Jaguar owners experienced 220 and 186 problems per 100 vehicles respectively.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had three out of the bottom seven vehicles for reliability in the survey, with Chrysler recording 214 problems per 100 cars, while Fiat (160) and Jeep (159) also posted poor results.
Genesis launched in Australia last year with a new flagship store in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall. The brand currently sells the G70 and G80 luxury sedans but the brand’s most important model to date, the GV80 SUV, is due to arrive later this year where it will compete with the BMW X5.