Asian cars surpass American and European manufacturers

Quality of Asian autos surpasses its main competitors from Europe and the US, marketing agency J.D. Power & Associates concludes.

Hyundai is getting closer to traditionally safe cars such as Toyata and Honda, informs “Gazeta”.

Russians however are aware of the Asian quality without the help of the Americans. Among this year's top ten cars of the first quarter, 7 of them belonged to Asian manufacturers.

J.D. Power & Associates' study examines quality and durability of autos after 3-months since the date of purchase. Judging by last year's results, car enthusiasts were most satisfied with Japanese and South Korean autos. On average, there are 111 defects per 100 Japanese cars. Korean cars add up to 117.

European autos occupy 3rd place among “unsafe” cars with 122 defects. This is only one defect more than American car manufacturers, which have been left out of the first triplet.

Lexus of Toyota is an absolute leader among top high-quality vehicles. Only 87 defects have been detected in one hundred autos. Also, such names as  Cadillac, Jaguar, Honda, Buick, Mercury and Hyundai can also be proud with 100 defects.

List of the most “poor” and “low quality” cars is topped with American Hummer. A hundred of these cars, which are considered model vehicles of American Army, have more than 170 defects! Volkswagen and Porsche are also at the top of the “most poor vehicles” list with 164 and 159 defects.

According to Vice-President of the “Russian automotive dealers” association Sergei Alexeichuk, the world market judges quality of Asian cars by the following criteria: sales rank of certain Japanese and Korean models keeps rising by 200-300% annually. As far as the European autos are concerned, their progress has probably been left in the past. Only the German Volkswagen lost 575 of its sales last year.

Russian car enthusiasts tend to trust Asian car import the most. The top ten of most popular cars in Russia consists of Daewoo, Nexia, Matiz, Toyota Corolla, Camry, Hyundai, Accent, Mitsubishi Lancer, and Kia Rio. Ford Focus, the American car giant, Renault Symbol and Opel Astra are also quite popular in Russia.