(J.D. Power and Associates: Westlake Village, CA) -- Initial quality in the automotive industry has improved significantly in 2008, with substantial gains demonstrated by nearly three-fourths of the 36 ranked nameplates, according to a recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Initial Quality Study (IQS). Overall quality improved to 118 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) in 2008, down from 125 PP100 in 2007.

“Due to some strong new-vehicle launches, in addition to a continued reduction in the level of defects and malfunctions, overall quality improved by 6 percent in 2008, compared with 2007,” says David Sargent, vice president of automotive research at J.D. Power and Associates. “This gain is driven not only by strong advances from many of the high-volume brands such as Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota, but also by very significant improvements by many other automakers.”

The study found that 86 percent of the overall improvement was due to advances in eliminating defects and malfunctions. Minimizing design problems remained a major challenge for the industry, particularly since new technology such as navigation and entertainment devices, is becoming increasingly common in today’s new vehicles.

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