Where Does Mercedes-Benz Sit in the U.S. Top-Ranked Car Models?
Giancarlo Perlas July 15, 2017
The Mercedes-Benz brand traces its history back more than a hundred years ago when the first petrol-powered car was invented. Over the years, it has survived the test of time due to the quality of the vehicles that produced. The prestige of the company is further boosted by its capability to adapt to the ever-changing demand of customers, its innovative approach in coming up with ways to satisfy consumers, marketing skills, and domination in the world of motorsports.
Recently, J.D. Power released its latest infographic showing the top-ranked models in the United States today. It is titled “J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality StudySM (IQS)) Unfortunately, Mercedes-Benz did not make it in the top of each segment studied by the company.
Basically the IQS evaluates the issues experienced by original vehicle owners during their initial 90 days of ownership. The Initial quality is based on the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100). The lower the score of the product, the better quality it has.
The rival of Mercedes, BMW, managed to bag the best Compact Premium Car and Best Midsize Premium SUV awards in the research with its BMW 4 Series and BMW X6, respectively. On the other hand, Kia dominated the non-premium segments of the study namely the Best Compact Car, Best Small SUV and Best Midsize SUV with the Kia Forte, Kia Niro and Kia Sorento in that order mentioned.
According to J.D. Powers, there’s an 8% improvement in quality of the vehicles covered in the assessment. From the 105 score reflected in last year’s PP100 industry average, the figures went down to 97.
Kia emerged as the highest overall in the IQS for the second consecutive year. The brand is followed by Genesis, Porsche, Ford, Ram, BMW, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Lincoln, Nissan, Volkswagen, MINI, Buick and Toyota. It should be noted that most of the ones in the list are South Korea-based companies.
The IQS also reveals that non-premium vehicles outperformed the premium ones from 2016 to 2017. In addition, the study illustrates that domestic vehicles have better performance than the imported products since last year.
The study said that the ACEN or the Audio/Communicatio/Entertainment/Navigation of the vehicles is where the problem usually occurs. Among the detected issues were in the voice recognition systems plus in Bluetooth connectivity and device pairing.
Despite Mercedes coming up short against its rivals, J.D. Power has praised it for the numerous changes it introduced this year. The redesigned E-Class sedan and wagon models are considered by the company as the hottest news coming from the three-pointed star marque. Special mentions were given to the expansion of the C-Class, SL and SLC updates, and refreshed CLA and GLS. The arrival of the new AMG 43 models are very much anticipated too.
Currently, J.D. Power rates the Mercedes brand with 3 out of 5 in terms of overall quality. The performance and design of its models garnered a score of 4 out of 5. Lastly, the dependability of its vehicles was given 4 out of 5.
Check out the complete 2017 J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality Study infographic below:
