By Choi Sung-jin
Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor took first and third places, respectively, among 20 automobile makers, at the 2015 quality survey conducted by “Autobild,” a technical journal in Germany, company officials said Friday.
Kia won the best score of all cars with 2.14 (the lower the number of points, the higher the ranking) for the first time, up sharply from 20th place in 2007 and fourth place in 2014. Hyundai Motor, which took the top spot in 2010 and 2011, fell to sixth place last year, but came back up three notches by receiving 2.43 points this year.
The German magazine surveys a number of factors – vehicle quality, customer satisfaction, 100,000-km endurance quality test, disassembly test, recall records, regular maintenance results, and warranty policy, among others – and announces the rankings each year based on their comprehensive assessment.
“We made thorough analyses of European consumers from the stage of developing new models, and put on the market cars that best suit different consumer categories,” said an official at the Hyundai Automotive Group.
Autobild, the most prestigious weekly for the auto industry in Germany, publishes 700,000 copies of each issue to take more than 70 percent of market share, and provides industrial information on 35 countries.