JD Power to Porsche

Porsche has claimed its second consecutive JD Power survey win in the United States.

The German sportscar specialist won by an even greater margin than it did in 2013, with Jaguar leaping from ninth last year into second place while Lexus held on for third.

At the other end of the scale, Italian brand Fiat ranked last by such a large margin that it almost ended up being a statistical outlier. US owners reported nearly three times as many faults per 100 cars as Porsche.

The annual JD Power Initial Quality Survey took data from more than 86,000 customers of 2014-model cars during their first 90 days of ownership through to May this year. The survey is scored on faults per 100 cars, so the lower the number, the better the score.

In spite of suffering huge embarrassment with a rash of engine failures in its World Performance Car of the Year-winning 911 GT3, Porsche actually pulled its fault-rate down from 80 last year to 74 in 2014.

Not only did the brand win outright, but: Panamera topped the rankings in the large premium category; Boxster won the compact premium sport class (with the Cayman second); 911 won the mid-sized premium sports car category; and the Cayenne ranked second behind the Lincoln MKX in the midsize (this is the USA, remember) premium category.

Jaguar scored more than 100 in 2013 but reeled that in to 87 to finish in second place. Hyundai was another big improver, slashing faults from 106 to 94 to finish fourth.

Hyundai's rank was six spots up from last year, and was the highest position for a 'volume' brand (edging out Toyota).

The Korean marque had six vehicles in top three positions in their respective segments including second-placed finishes for Santa Fe and i45 (sold as Sonata in the USA). It is the third time Hyundai has finished among the top four brands overall.

While the industry average was 116, Jeep ran to 146 faults while parent company, Fiat, polled more than two faults per car with a total score of 206. No other brand was within 60 faults/100 cars of Fiat.

There were some odd numbers, though, as the relative closeness of Toyota and Lexus, and Hyundai and Kia showed, similar production processes could reap similar results. Yet BMW ranked eighth with 108 faults (behind Chevrolet!) and MINI languished in 26th with 133 faults.

While Jaguar took accolades for finishing second, its partner brand Land Rover wallowed in 22nd with the below average score of 127. Audi finished in 11th with 111 faults, while Volkswagen was 24th with 128. Honda premium brand Acura’s score of 131 was far worse its parent's 108.