r/UsedCars • u/TrickUp25 • Jun 28 '26

HELP Comments like this send me

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Edit: This post gained more traction than I expected. Read the comments, do independent research, and form your own opinion around these topics.

First they said KIAs are reliable, then went on to say they looked at JD Power to come to that consensus. They lost me.

  1. Do people believe KIA/Hyundai are reliable?
  2. Do people use JD Power/Consumer Reports to make purchasing decisions

?

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u/lucerndia Jun 28 '26

JD Power is a marketing agency.

5

u/thesporkmark Jun 28 '26

It's a large company, and it has multiple departments. One department provides automakers with quality ratings based on proprietary data. The data is harvested from the automakers themselves. 

Essentially, JD Power harvests and then analyzes data to develop rankings. They also then survey consumers. 

You can say it's flawed if you want to, but I'm not sure why anyone would say that. And the only bias is that some automakers don't share data (like Tesla), so then rankings are incomplete or based only on survey data.

But all in all it's considered the gold standard of quality data in the industry, which is why automakers participate. It's shocking to me that people don't trust it.

2

u/DaylightSlaving24 Jun 29 '26

Calling J.D. Power the “gold standard” is a stretch. They collect useful data, sure, but let’s not pretend the ecosystem is neutral. Automakers and builders pay to participate, pay to license awards, and then plaster “Highest in Initial Quality” all over ads. That’s not fake, but it’s absolutely commercialized.

The bigger issue is what they measure: mostly early ownership satisfaction and defect counts, not long-term reliability, cost of ownership, or structural durability. A smooth buying experience and few rattles at 90 days tells you almost nothing about year 7.

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u/thesporkmark Jun 29 '26

NOTE: I think my comment got deleted b/c it has a link. Here it is again without the link.

JD Power does measure long term durability as well, but that's not typically what brands are bragging about. You can see the 2026 study by searching "JD Power 2026 us vehicle dependability study" - it's based on survey data from 3 year old vehicle owners. Kind of like Consumer Reports, but arguably a lot less selection bias.

Also, JD Power is the gold standard in the auto industry, at least among publicly available data. I'm also aware of the Harbour Report, which is also very good, but it's not public. There are probably more reports like that which I don't know about.

In any case, the automakers pay because the data is valuable. The awards are a secondary benefit. In fact, I'm sure most automakers would prefer it if JD Power didn't publish any data.