2019 Malaysia Initial Quality Study released

KUALA LUMPUR: J.D. Power, the industry research firm, has released the 2019 Malaysia Initial Quality Study. It denotes that the current Malaysian buyers have lesser issues with their vehicles compared to 2018. Over the past three years, the share of manufacturing-related issues has been dropped to 51% comparing to 74% in 2016.

In the 2019 Malaysia Initial Quality Study, the number of problems is calculated by the new-vehicle owners experienced in the very first two to six months. As mentioned earlier, the number of problems are dropped, as the average drops down from 89 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) in 2018 to 85. Also, it has been mentioned that manufacturing quality and design-related issues get the same numbers as 44 PP100 and 40 PP100.

The study thoroughly generates statistics related to the reduction. The noise aspects play a vital role in this, such as abnormal suspension noise (-1.1 PP100), wind noise (-1.7 PP100), seat noise (-0.9 PP100), other interior storage compartments noise (-0.3 PP100) and abnormal transmission noise (-0.7 PP100).

Despite all these positive signs, still, 36% of the manufacturing issues are based on noise-related issues. The top two most-cited problems by owners are road noise (2.9 PP100) and excessive wind noise (5.9 PP100). According to the study, owners under 35 years have highlighted more faults (91 PP100) than the older ones (73 PP100).

Speaking of the models, Honda Jazz gets the best score (fewer issues) in the city compact segment having a score of 68 PP100. In the midsize entry segment, Honda City gets 59 PP100. Honda CR-V in the large SUV segment gets the best score as 64 PP100. And last, but not the least, Perodua Aruz obtains 70 PP100 in the compact SUV segment.

Also Read: Perodua Aruz is the best-selling crossover in Malaysia