LOS ANGELES, June 23 — Whether you’ve just taken delivery of a Kia or a Chrysler, the latest new-vehicle initial quality study from JD Power will come as good news, as quality is improving massively across all manufacturers and all makes.

In fact, the study, which uses a quality score calculated via the number of problems experienced during the first 90 days of ownership per 100 examples of an individual model (the PP100 score), finds that the industry average is now PP97. That’s an 8 per cent improvement over 2016 and the highest average score since JD Power started tracking quality in 1987.

As for accuracy and robustness, the study polls 80,000 US drivers who have taken delivery of a 2017-model-year car with a 233-question survey. The results are fed back to manufacturers in the hopes of making them take action to improve quality and reliability.

In terms of ranking, with a score of 72, Kia is the top brand for the second year running. Hyundai’s new Genesis premium sub-brand is second (77) and Porsche (78) closes out the top three.

Ford has made huge efforts to improve the quality of its new cars and as a result it has jumped up to join fourth place (86), tying with Ram, another marque that has made significant inroads into addressing quality issues since the last study. BMW, Chevrolet and Hyundai find themselves in joint sixth place (88) and the top 10 is rounded out by Lincoln (92) and Nissan (93).

As for individual cars, JD Power ranks the Chevrolet Sonic as the best small car. The best compact award goes to the Kia Forte, the Toyota Camry is the best midsize car, while the Kia Cadenza is the best large car.

In the performance segment, the best compact sports car is the Mini Cooper, the best mid-size sporty car is the Ford Mustang and the best premium sports car is the Porsche 911.

The Kia Niro is the best small SUV for initial quality, the GMC Terrain takes the honours in the compact SUV class, while the Kia Sorento tops the Midsize SUV sector and Ford takes the crown for fill size SUVs with the Expedition.

In the premium market, the BMW 2 Series is the best premium small car and its bigger brother the 4 Series is the best compact premium car. The Lexus GS is the best midsize premium car while in the SUV category the Mercedes-Benz GLA is the best small premium SUV, the Porsche Macan the best compact premium SUV while the BMW X6 and the Infiniti QX 80 take the midsize and large premium SUV awards respectively. — AFP-Relaxnews