Power: Average Quality of U.S. Cars Improved 5% This Year

Nearly all car brands sold in America have improved their quality from over the past year in spite of increased complaints about technology features, according to J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Initial Quality Survey.

Power, which announced the results at an Automotive Press Assn. lunch in Detroit, surveys buyers of new vehicles about mechanical defects and design-related problems in the first 90 days of ownership. Models and brands are scored by the number of problems per 100 vehicles.

Twenty-six of the 34 brands surveyed improved this year, and the average score jumped 5% to a record-low 102 problems/100 vehicles. Power says some gains resulted from favorable ratings for newly launched models vehicles that traditionally score poorly in their first year.

Advances also come from highly rated manufacturers who continue to fine-tune their vehicle quality. This year's top-ranked car model, the Porsche 911 introduced 47 years ago, has the best quality of any vehicle ever in the Power survey.

Lexus (73 problems/100 vehicles) retains its position as the top-rated brand. Jaguar (151), the most-improved brand this year, vaulted from 20th to second place on the strength of the XJ sedan, which is the industry's most improved model. Fiat and Smart, which both have scores of 151, are the lowest-ranked marques.

Concerns about exterior and performance problems have been surpassed by complaints about interior systems such as hands-free phones, navigation systems and audio devices, the firm says. The latter accounts for 16% of all complaints this year compared with 9% in 2006.

Ford whose hard-to-use MyFordTouch telematics system dragged it from fifth place to 23rd (116 problems/100 vehicles) last year slips to 27th place in 2012 with 118 problems. Ford says it made software changes to fix the system but not in time to be reflected in this year's Power survey.