Kia earns a top place in major car reliability survey

(SEOUL) January 25, 2007 -- Kia vehicles have won a top place in one of the world's biggest surveys investigating the reliability of more than 450,000 cars aged from three to nine years old. More than 82% of the owners of Kia vehicles surveyed reported no mechanical failures of any type.

The survey was carried out by Warranty Direct, an independent automotive warranty specialist company, and looked into the reliability of vehicles from 33 manufacturers in daily use in the USA and the UK. The company then drew up a 'Reliability League Table' showing the number of mechanical failures reported for every 100 vehicles covered by its warranty policies.

Kia was rated number five with a score of 17.39%, very close to Toyota and Mitsubishi and beating such famous brands as Nissan (18.86%), Lexus (20.05%), Porsche (27.48%), BMW (28.64%), Mercedes (29.90%) and Audi (36.74%). Filling the last two places in the survey were the well-known 4x4 brands Land Rover (44.21%) and Jeep (46.35 %).

"This survey strongly supports what we have known for some time, namely that Kia makes high quality vehicles with very good reliability," commented Mr Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe.

"In recent years we have greatly improved our product quality and drastically cut back on warranty claims. Now we're backing up our confidence with a unique 7-Year / 150,000 km Warranty on the new Kia cee'd - transferable to subsequent owners - and more and more new customers are switching to the Kia brand. I'm certain that, if the intriguing Warranty Direct survey is repeated in three years time, Kia will have climbed even higher up the reliability league table."

Warranty Direct - 'Reliability League Table' 2007 

 

TOP 10 RESULTS

 

Manufacturer                 Incidence Rate %* 

1  Mazda                                      8.04 

2  Honda                                       8.90 

3  Toyota                                      15.78 

4  Mitsubishi                                  17.04 

5  Kia                                            17.39 

6  Subaru                                       18.46 

7  Nissan                                       18.86 

8  Lexus                                         20.05 

9  Mini                                           21.90 

10 Citroen                                    25.98 

 

* Number of mechanical failures reported by policy holders for every 100
vehicles, aged between three and nine years old.