A new study by J.D. Power reveals that the quality of new vehicles dipped an average of 11% this year. Kristin Kolodge, Vice President and head of auto benchmarking and mobility development at J.D. Power, joins Cheddar News to talk about the study she oversaw at her company.

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J.D. Power Releases Initial Quality Study for Automakers 

and a supply chain issues continue to rattle sectors across the board. Automakers especially are facing major challenges when it comes to production american consumer research and analytics firm JD Power releasing its 2022 initial quality study and the results may cause some consumers to pump the brakes on those new vehicle purchases. One aspect of the study revealing new vehicle quality declined by 11% this year, largely attributed to those global supply snarls that we keep telling you about here to break it all down as Kristen collage vice president and head of auto benchmarking and mobility development at J. D. Power Welcome to the show Kristin. You oversaw the study. What specific components does the report examining how widespread is this quality issue? Well thank you very much for having me. So the study itself is covering everything from new vehicle quality, so bumper to bumper so anything from your powertrain transmission, anything from your infotainment system, the controls that you're touching inside the vehicle seats etc. So this is looking at a very comprehensive look at that 90 days of ownership. So that point in time where the customer is so excited about their new vehicle purchase. We're capturing the aspect of any problems that they're having with that new vehicle experience and this year with the supply chain it's been truly a year like no other um we're seeing the supply chain disruption coming back and impacting vehicle quality. So when you think of um the vehicle delivery in some cases some manufacturers were delivering the vehicles with some features not installed that were expected to be installed. So for instance, heated seats, ventilated seats, um, heated steering wheel, maybe only getting one key fob. So some of those aspects certainly caused the manufacture caused um, problems from that initial consumer experience perspective and so that type of disruption really was hitting impact, impacting quality pretty hard Kristin. Are there any brands that are suffering more than others? And on the other side, are there other brands that are immune to the complications that people are seeing or that companies are seeing? Well? We certainly saw quite a variety of performance within the industry this year. Um, there were three manufacturers in total that actually had an improved performance versus last year and so this isn't necessarily universal across the industry, those manufacturers understood how to navigate. Um, you know, the complications with the supply chain disruption. So we had general motors Mercedes, Benz, jaguar land rover, that actually did have year over year improvement in their performance this year. The rest of the manufacturers did have declines this year. We're looking at the list now, this is so interesting to me. Volvo Maserati Audi in the bottom brands according to the study, which I think is so interesting. E. V vehicles on average had more problems than cars and trucks with traditional combustion engines. I am curious, we see so many automakers rushed towards E. V development, do you think a lot of them are gonna rush this despite the news that we're getting about electric cars. So the path for electrification is going to continue right, we see that level of commitment across the manufacturers towards this new electrified future right now, the initial quality performance for battery electric vehicles is performing is being more problematic than what we would call internal combustion engines. Um that being said, we also see that many of the areas where those battery electric vehicles are having more problems are not necessarily tied to the powertrain itself. It's the commitment, it's the strategy of the manufacturers where they're adding more technology, adding more connectivity, um adding different features if you will to that um, battery electric vehicle to make it more towards that smart car type of concept and it's those areas that are really coming back as being more problematic itself. So I don't see the strategy changing in any way, but I certainly see where those elements of the problem areas are certainly going to need to maintain continued focus by the industry to better meet consumer expectations. How likely are we to see a continuation of this quality impact trend in the next few months? Well, I think that it's gonna be very reticent still on um, the supply chain disruption, you know, we've seen industry be very creative with their solutions on how to keep their plants up and running and and certainly how to, you know, get inventory back on the dealership lots. Um, so with that much of it is just being able to manage that day to day and be able to pivot and shift accordingly. But we've seen in my mind where that industry has been very, you know, creative with their solutions to be able to get the product into consumers hands, we really appreciate the information, christian Kroll Lodge, vice president and head of auto benchmarking and mobility development at J. D. Power. Thank you so much.