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What do J.D. Power's quality ratings really measure?

Check these recently released J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) results. Do they raise any questions in your mind? Premium sports-car maker Porsche sits in first place for the third straight year, so are Porsches really the best-built cars in the U.S. market? Korean brands Kia and Hyundai are second and fourth, so are Korean vehicles suddenly better than their US, European, and Japanese competitors? Are workaday Chevrolets (seventh place) better than premium Buicks (11th), and Buicks better than luxury Cadillacs (21st), even though all are assembled in General Motors plants with the same processes and many shared parts? Are Japanese Acuras (26th) worse than German Volkswagens (24th)? And is "quality" really what it used to be (and what most perceive it to be), a measure of build excellence? Or has it evolved into much more a measure of likeability and ease of use? To properly analyze these widely watched results, we must first understand what IQS actually studies, and what the numerical scores really mean. First, as its name indicates, it's all about "initial" quality, measured by problems reported by new-vehicle owners in their first 90 days of ownership. If something breaks or falls off four months in, it doesn't count here. Second, the scores are problems per 100 vehicles, or PP100. So Power's 2015 IQS industry average of 112 PP100 translates to just 1.12 reported problems per vehicle. Third, no attempt is made to differentiate BIG problems from minor ones. Thus a transmission or engine failure counts the same as a squeaky glove box door, tricky phone pairing, inconsistent voice recognition, or anything else that annoys the owner. Traditionally, a high-quality vehicle is one that is well-bolted together. It doesn't leak, squeak, rattle, shed parts, show gaps between panels, or break down and leave you stranded. By this standard, there are very few poor-quality new vehicles in today's U.S. market. But what "quality" should not mean, is subjective likeability: ease of operation of the radio, climate controls, or seat adjusters, phone pairing, music downloading, sizes of touch pads on an infotainment screen, quickness of system response, or accuracy of voice-recognition. These are ergonomic "human factors" issues, not "quality" problems. Yet these kinds of pleasability issues are now dominating today's JDP "quality" ratings.

Kia Niro shares Hyundai Ioniq parts, could become an EV

It's time for the Chicago Auto Show, so it's no surprise that Kia has warmed up the chilly February air here with a green vehicle debut. This year it was the Niro, the brand's first dedicated hybrid, and it follows past Chicago debuts like the Soul EV and the Optima Hybrid. Like those vehicles, the Niro is not going to take long to get from the concept stage to showroom. Steve Kosowski, Kia Niro project manager, told AutoblogGreen that the first Niro hybrids will arrive in all 50 US states in about 11 months. The Niro will only be offered as a hybrid – both with a plug and without – but Kosowski could not say when the PHEV will arrive, other than, "a little later in the lifecycle." The standard hybrid will be certified as a 2017 model-year vehicle, but the PHEV might become a 2018, or even later. A PHEV will arrive "a little later in the lifecycle." Kia is on a mission (with Hyundai, see below) as it develops the Niro to get incredibly high fuel economy. Kosowski said that the defining mantra was, "Let's see what we can do when the resources are focused on hitting 50 miles per gallon and the only way the car is going to be built is with an electrified powertrain," he said. View 18 Photos Knowing that the Niro would have a battery allowed Kia and Hyundai engineers to plan things out together, because the Niro will share a lot of components with the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq. "The whole powertrain is essentially shared between the two," Kosowski said. "There are a few little tuning differences, but it's a 1.6 GDI, four-cylinder from the Kappa engine family that is the basis for both cars. The motor is sandwiched between the engine and the transmission, there's a clutch there. And the DCT is also shared between both cars." They both ride on the same 103-inch wheelbase, and the track width is similar as well. There might be some changes with the ratios and the tunings, Kosowski said, but the two companies are obviously working together to make these two vehicles very real, very soon. The main difference between the Niro and the Ioniq that the Kia is a CUV while the Hyundai is a sedan. "The market for electrified vehicles is changing rapidly." - Steve Kosowski Going into the process with electrification in mind meant "that the engineering, the platform layout, the way the car crashes, the way the car comes together, the way the car is assembled, all of that is engineered around having a battery," Kosowski said.

In the Kia Niro Super Bowl ad, no good deed goes unpunished

After a few teasers, we finally get to see Kia's Super Bowl ad for the Niro hybrid. The ad shows Melissa McCarthy rushing off to all corners of the world to help environmental causes of all types. As soon as a call comes over the speakers of her navy blue Niro, she's ready to go. Unfortunately, as you'll see in the video above, none of her experiences go according to plan. She has a close encounter with a whale that sends her flying, rides a tree down to the ground while trying to save it, and runs from an angry rhino. The end message is that "it's hard to be an eco warrior, but it's easy to drive like one." The ad is admittedly funny, but the end message isn't exactly ideal. Fuel-sipping cars like the Niro are generally better for the environment than thirstier machines, but it's a little disappointing to see it proposed as a viable alternative to actual volunteer work to help the environment. It's a bit like wanting to go overseas to help people in struggling countries, but deciding it's too hard and buying a Fair-Trade chocolate bar instead. But hey, it's just a Super Bowl commercial, so we're probably overthinking this. And if you liked the commercial, or maybe you're just a Melissa McCarthy fan, Kia will be giving away 40 props from the commercials. You can win one of them by chatting with the NiroBot chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which provides information about the car. Related Video: