China Car Quality Makes Strides, Survey Shows

Wallstreet Report

BEIJING–Domestic car brands in China are making strides in quality and the gap between them and their international rivals has narrowed substantially this year, a survey by auto consulting group J.D. Power showed Thursday.

“Chinese domestic brands achieved marked improvement in vehicle quality in 2013, and that will help boost their sales going forward,” Mei Songlin, vice president of J.D.Power’s China operations told a news briefing.

A survey of owners of domestic brand cars showed that for every 100 vehicles there were 155 problems reported in 2013. That was down from 212 per 100 vehicles in 2012.

The total appears high partly because the survey covers minor design-related defects–even a slight rattle in a window if it requires corrective action–in addition to major malfunctions.

Problems reported with international brands averaged 104 per 100 vehicles, and that was down from 117 a year ago.

The narrowing in the difference between Chinese and overseas brands is even more dramatic when looked at over a longer period of time, according to the consulting firm.

“The gap between domestic and international brands in terms of the number of problems narrowed to 51 this year from 396 problems in 2000,” said Mr. Mei.

Four domestic brands–Trumpchi from GAC Motor Co., Venucia from Dongfeng Motor Co., Roewe from SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SH). and Luxgen from Dongfeng-Yulon Motor Co.–did better than the industry average this year while no domestic brands exceeded the average last year.

South Korean brands performed best, with about 85 problems reported per 100 vehicles. Japanese brands came second with 104 problems while European and U.S. brands both averaged 108, the report said.

Among owners of domestic brands that had no quality problems, 36% said they would “definitely recommend” the brand and 18% said they would buy the brand again.

To further improve quality, auto makers should focus on the most frequently reported problems among Chinese customers, including issues regarding fuel efficiency and various noise problems, said Tony Zhou, automotive research director with the company.

The report is based on evaluations from 21,181 owners of new vehicles purchased between October 2012 and June 2013. It covered 213 passenger vehicle models from 65 different brands, said the company. J.D. Power has conducted the annual survey in China over 14 years.

华尔街日报：中国国产汽车质量大幅提升

2013-10-31 19:46:18 华尔街日报

汽车咨询公司J.D. Power周四发布的调查报告显示，今年中国本土汽车品牌的质量有了长足进步，已经明显拉小了与国际竞争对手之间的差距。

该公司中国区副总裁梅松林表示，2013年中国国产汽车品牌的质量实现显著的改善，这将有助于提升国产车制造商今后的销量。
一项对国产车车主开展的调查显示，2013年每100辆车出现155个问题。2012年这一数字为212个。

问题总数看似较高，部分原因在于该调查不仅将重大故障考虑在内，也涵盖了较小的设计缺陷。

调查显示，外资汽车品牌每100辆车出现104个问题，低于去年的117个。

据该咨询公司称，如果从更长时间看，国产车和外国车的差距缩小甚至更为明显。

梅松林表示，今年国产车和外国车出现问题的次数之差由2000年的396个降至51个。

四个国产品牌——广州汽车公司(GAC Motor Co.)推出的传祺、东风汽车公司(Dongfeng Motor Co.)的启辰、上海汽车集团股份有限公司(SAIC Motor Co.,简称：上汽集团)的荣威以及东风汽车-台湾裕隆集团(Yulon Motor Co.)的纳智捷，今年的表现好于行业平均水平，去年本土品牌则无一超过行业平均水平。

报告显示，韩国车的表现最佳，每100辆车出现大约85个问题。日本车紧随其后，为104个问题，欧美车均为108个问题。

在未出现质量问题的国产车车主中，36%的车主表示他们“肯定会推荐”同一品牌，有18%表示还会再买同一品牌的汽车。

该公司的汽车研究主管周桐(Tony Zhou)表示，为了进一步提升质量，汽车制造商将集中力量解决中国用户报告的发生频率最高的问题，包括燃料效率和各种噪音问题。

该公司表示，上述报告是根据在2012年10月至2013年6月之间购买新车的21,181位车主的评估完成，覆盖了65个品牌、213款乘用车车型。J.D. Power在中国进行年度调查已经持续了14年时间。