In part one of this series, the question was asked whether the J.D Power Initial Quality awards matter when it comes to sales. The awards were announced on June 17 and the manufacturers have released their June sales reports. Have the awards made any difference?
The chart at the end of the article shows all of the award winners (with a few exceptions; see chart for details) and sales numbers for May and June. The chart includes the percent change over the same month in 2014 as well as the percent change between June and May sales. The last column shows whether or not the manufacturer uses the award on the vehicle’s web page.
For June 2015, overall car sales were up 3.9 percent over June 2014.
Only two automakers have the initial quality awards on their websites, and only for a few models. Nissan has the most prominent placement of the award for their Sentra, and Kia has the award on the Soul and Sorento web pages. Chevrolet has J.D Power mentioned on the Malibu page, but not the initial quality award; they highlight the “Most Dependable Midsize Car” award instead.
Of the those three models with the award listed on their web pages, two of them – the two Kias – sales are down compared to June 2014. The Sentra is up slightly over June 2014, but at 0.6 percent it’s well below the overall sales increase of 3.9 percent. All three are down month-to-month compared to May, and all three are double-digit decreases.
In fact, no significant correlation can be found between award winners and sales number so far. However, the awards were released in the middle of the month, which means they only had a half of a month to make any impact on sales. Also, manufacturers may not have had time to incorporate the awards into their advertisements and other media outlets, like the models’ web pages.
Because of these factors, part three of this series will show sales numbers for July, the first full month of sales since the cars were named as award winners, to see if the awards have any effect on sales.
See the full chart below for all sales numbers for J.D. Power Initial Quality award winners:
| Car | May 2015 | % Change | June 2015 | % Change | % Month-to-month | On website? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Spark | 2,705 | -47.8% | 3857 | 4% | 42.59% | N |
| Hyundai Accent | 4,428 | -27.6% | 6541 | 14.4% | 47.72% | N |
| Nissan Sentra | 20,616 | -6% | 17200 | 0.6% | -16.57% | Y |
| Mazda Miata | 449 | -15.3% | 440 | 6.8% | -2.00% | N |
| Porsche Boxster | 307 | -25.3% | 310 | -8.3% | 0.98% | N |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 21,461 | 11.3% | 15228 | -5.6% | -29.04% | N* |
| Dodge Challenger | 7,438 | 29.4% | 6845 | 56.4% | -7.97% | N |
| Porsche 911 | 841 | -2.7% | 813 | 0.5% | -3.33% | N |
| Chrysler 300 | 4,042 | -13.1% | 3965 | 11.2% | -1.90% | N |
| Lexus LS | 615 | -11.3% | 629 | 8.1% | 2.28% | N |
| Hyundai Tucson | 3,881 | -13.4% | 3606 | -4.5% | -7.09% | N |
| Audi Q3 | 1,128 | 0% | 867 | 0% | -23.14% | N |
| Chevrolet Equinox | 29,456 | 29.8% | 21760 | 0.1% | -26.13% | N |
| Ford Escape | 29,248 | -8.3% | 24126 | -3.9% | -17.51% | N |
| Porsche Macan | 1,046 | -17.2% | 1065 | 39.6% | 1.82% | N |
| Kia Soul | 13,886 | -11% | 11844 | -3.9% | -14.71% | Y |
| Kia Sorento | 10,743 | 1.8% | 8967 | -8.8% | -16.53% | Y |
| Infiniti QX70 | 382 | 5.8% | 372 | 13.1% | -2.62% | N |
| Toyota Tacoma | 17,520 | 26.3% | 15959 | 31.1% | -8.91% | N |
| Nissan Quest | 1,154 | -0.7% | 1093 | 21.4% | -5.29% | N |
| Toyota Sequoia | 1,145 | 7.2% | 1144 | 17.6% | -0.09% | N |
| Infiniti QX80 | 1,058 | 8% | 996 | 8.1% | -5.86% | N |
| Chevrolet Silverado | 51,602 | 10.6% | 51548 | 18.4% | -0.10% | N |
| * JD Power is mentioned on website, but not initial quality award BMW 4 and 5 series, Ford Super Duty not included as manufacturer doesn’t break out sales for these models |
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Check out this TFLcar video review of the 2016 Kia Sorento:
