Posts Tagged ‘jd power’
Future Vehicles Coming from Kia Motors
Thursday, March 8th, 2018
Kia Motors is really turning the tables on the auto industry these days. It’s almost not fair, but hey, the auto industry is practically a war. Nothing is fair. We don’t mind though, because the more concepts and vehicles that come from the Kia Motors lineup, the more we have to love. After all, Kia vehicles are award winning models. Kia Motors earned strong marks from the J.D. Power Dependability Study, two models were named “Best Vehicle for the Money”, and the award-winning 2018 Kia Stinger is, well, award-winning.
Hybrids and Electric
Kia Motors is well known for making alternative fuel vehicles. They came out with the groovy Kia Soul hatchback in 2009 and quickly turned it into an all-electric vehicle. A similar pattern formed with the Kia Optima. First it came with the standard internal combustion engine, then a hybrid version came out, and then again with a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) variation. The release of alternative fuel vehicles by Kia Motors is just becoming the norm.
Recently, more so mid-to-late 2017, Kia released the Kia Niro, a hybrid crossover and the first of its kind. It wasn’t long after its release that Kia started talking about making a plug-in hybrid variant of the crossover, having gained popularity sooner than expected. Before the end of 2017, that’s exactly what they did – the Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid was officially added to the lineup.
The Kia Motors Philosophy
Wednesday, July 12th, 2017Kia Motors has been getting a lot of good press in the last year. The Kia Soul was rated as one of the coolest cars by Kelley Blue Book, and Best Budget Vehicle by two publications. KBB also awarded the 2016 Kia Optima with the Best Buy Award for midsize cars, and the 2017 Sportage won the Red Dot Award for Product Design in 2016. Most recently, for the second-year in a row, Kia Motors nabbed the top spot in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. With all of this and more going on, one has to wonder what’s their secret.
Upon visiting Kia.com, one can learn a little more about Kia Motors. They have philosophies and missions all over the world, in the corporate world and in education. When it comes to the automotive industry however, Kia Motors stands for designing, engineering, and building – or, “World-class design and engineering.” With all the awards and recognition their vehicles receive, it’s no secret. Even the much sought after 2018 Kia Stinger, pushed back sadly, upon its unveiling at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show was said to be a new standard – a car that drives as well as it looks.
Kia Earns Top Spot in J.D. Power Initial Quality Study for Second Year in a Row
Monday, June 26th, 2017
The results of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) have been released, and Kia Motors did better than any other brand for the second year in a row. In fact, it turns out, many 2017 model year vehicles did great this year.
Every year, J.D. Power and Associates conduct various studies, and the Initial Quality Study focuses on vehicle quality reported by drivers after 90 days of ownership. Surveys are sent out between February and May each year, and this year (2017) more than 77,000 responses were collected from owners and lessees of 2017 model year vehicles. To gain the top spot in the IQS, an auto brand has to have the least amount of problems and hiccups during those 90 days. Kia Motors only had 72 problems for every 100 vehicles.
Kia Motors didn’t just earn the top spot, but also several Kia models earned many model-level rewards. These include the Kia Cadenza in the large sedan segment; the Kia Forte in the compact car category; the new Kia Niro in the small SUV segment; the Kia Sorento in the midsize SUV segment; and the hip Kia Soul in the small multi-purpose vehicle segment.
Kia JD Power Study Highlights
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
Every year, the Initial Quality Study by J.D. Power and Associates sends out thousands of surveys to vehicle owners and lessees of the current model year vehicles across 33 brands. This year, Kia received the lowest number of problems making it the highest ranked brand on the 2016 Initial Quality Study by J.D. Power.
The Initial Quality Study has been around for 30 years, and only once before 2016 has a non-luxury brand been ranked the highest. The study is designed to evaluate a vehicle’s quality 90 days after ownership, and along with Kia, 21 out of the 33 brands had shown a 6% improvement of quality in comparison to their previous year.
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