Car market leader Maruti today topped the industry’s quality awards, with
its models Alto, Swift and Esteem bagging the first position in the annual J
D Power Initial Quality Study.
In the compact car segment, Maruti’s Alto, Zen and WagonR took the top three
positions, relegating Hyundai’s Santro to the fourth position. The Esteem
was rated first in the entry mid size segment for the third year in a row,
finishing ahead of Ford Ikon and Tata Indigo.
Maruti models helped push up the overall quality score for the car industry
by 49 points, even as the Study concluded that initial quality of new
vehicles has improved in India.
Honda’s City, Skoda’s Octavia and Toyota’s Innova were the winners in their
respective segments.
’’The number of problems reported by customers has dropped in all categories
comprising the IQS compared to 2004, with eight out of 12 nameplates showing
improvements, ’’ said Mohit Arora, India director at J D Power Asia pacific.
’’ This is genuinely a positive sign for both manufacturers and new vehicle
buyers.’’
While Alto has been rated first among compact cars for the second year in a
row, WagonR is the industry’s most improved brand over last year.
With an improvement in eight out of nine IQS categories, the Skoda Octavia
ranks highest in the premium mid size segment for the first time in the
study, followed by Chevrolet Optra and Toyota Corolla.
Toyota Innova ranks first in the utility vehicle super segment followed by
Maruti Omni and Chevrolet Tavera.
The Initial Quality Study, now in its ninth year, focuses on 135 problem
symptoms affecting vehicle quality across nine IQS problem categories. It
measures problems experienced in the first two to six months of ownership
based on evaluations from more than 4500 new vehicle owners of 35 different models