As per the data issued by J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2012 India Initial Quality Study (IQS), the incidence of issues concerned to excessive fuel consumption has been reportedly reduced in the last five years. However, the reports of initial quality problems faced by the new vehicle owners are quite high in 2012 against the data of 2011.
This research is concerned with the problems faced by the owners, who have purchased a new model, during first two and six months of ownership. It deals with over 200 issue symptoms and covers around eight vehicle categories, which are listed in the order of frequently reported problems. These eight categories include engine and transmission, vehicle exterior, driving experience, HVAC, features as well as controls and displays, vehicle interior, seats and audio as well as entertainment and navigation. All the glitches are recorded as the number of issues per 100 vehicles (PP100).
In 2012, the average initial quality in the country ranges 120 PP100, which is reported to be slightly more than that of 119 PP100 registered in 2011. However, the degree of owner-reported quality issues mainly remained ineffective among all the categories from 2011. Considering the issues related to more fuel consumption, the figures indicate that there has been an important reduction of 23 per cent during the last five years, showcasing that the auto makers in the country are focussing over more fuel efficient vehicles.
The Executive Director of J.D. Power Asia Pacific, Singapore, Mohit Arora said, “Historically, fuel efficiency has been one of the key drivers of model consideration and purchase in India. The reduction in fuel consumption-related problems is a result of both the advancements in engine technology and the adoption of smaller engine capacities in the Indian automotive industry. The effectiveness of these initiatives is clearly visible via fewer owner-reported problems with excessive fuel consumption.”
Besides, the research finds a gap between the promised efficiency of fuel consumption made during the purchasing process and the exact fuel efficiency recorded by the owners after few weeks. During 2012, it was found that 67 per cent of the new vehicle owners have reported that the mileage delivered by their models is significantly less that the sales man told to them during the purchasing process. With these figures, the data has marked an increase of five per cent points since 2008.
Arora further said, “Fuel efficiency perceptions remain an area that the industry still needs to work on. As technological advancements make vehicles more sophisticated, clearer communication during the purchase process will help set more realistic owner expectations on product performance. It would be prudent for auto makers and their dealer networks to continue efforts to bridge the gap between expectations and reality on product performance.”
Interestingly, each Toyota and Honda has two models which stand on the top notch in their respective segments. The Toyota Innova has been ranked highest in the Multi Utility Vehicle (MUV)/ Multi Purpose Vehicle Segment (MPV) for the sixth year in a row, while the Toyota Fortuner stood on the numero uno position in Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) segment. On the other hand, Honda City has been ranked highest in the midsize sedan segment for 10th year in a row, whereas the recently launched Brio hatchback has been placed higher in the luxury small car segment.
Hyundai Santro is also provided with an award in small car segment and the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire has been also honoured in the midsize sedan segment for third year in a row. The research concludes that among the model-owners who are experiencing more issues than anticipated, 38 per cent will recommend their vehicle to other buyers against the 73 per cent individuals who got to experience less issues than expected.
Reportedly, the 2012 India Initial Quality Study (IQS) is framed on the evaluations reported by 8,688 owners who opted for a new vehicle from November 2011 to July 2012. The research work includes 94 models from the end of 16 manufacturers.
