WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CAFor the first time, Korean-branded vehicles outpace both European-and domestic-branded vehicles in initial quality, according to the J.D. Power and Associates (www.jdpower.com) 2004 Initial Quality Study (IQS).
Manufacturers of Korean-branded vehicles, strongly driven by Hyundai's performance, have aggressively cut initial quality problems by 57% in the past six years-dropping from 272 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) in 1998 to 117 PP100 in 2004. This improvement is in contrast to the state of initial quality among the Korean-branded vehicles in 1998, when they trailed the industry-leading European-branded nameplates by 116 PP100. The Koreans now lead the Europeans by 5 PP100 and the domestics by 6 PP100, but trail the Japanese by 6 PP100.