The Hyundai Genesis captures top honors in the inaugural J.D. Power Vehicle Launch Index.
The Hyundai Genesis has nabbed top honors in an inaugural study designed to measure how effectively automakers bring their new products to market.
Conventional wisdom holds that motorists should beware of buying a car during its first year on the market, and studies, such as the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey, have long shown that, indeed, there are most likely to be snags in the production process in the months after a vehicle’s launch. But recent reports have shown that’s beginning to change, and Power’s Vehicle Launch Index is designed to spotlight those manufacturers and products that get things right, right out of the box.
The California-based market research firm estimates there will be at least 205 new vehicle launches between 2009 and 2012, including 80 all-new entries into the American market. The industry is expected to invest $50 billion on these debuts. Screwing up at start-up can kill an otherwise promising vehicle, while delivering a new product to market with a minimum of problems can ensure its success, Power analysts assert.
“Launching new vehicles successfully is critical to the financial success of every automaker,” said Gary Dilts, Power’s senior vice president of global. “Given lower consumer demand, vehicle proliferation and the financial pressures on the auto industry, every manufacturer must get it ‘right’ from the start.”
Launching a high-quality car truck or crossover, said Dilts, is one of the more important tasks in any vehicle launch, but there are other important sink-or-swim elements:
Accurately planning a product’s price and sales levels, as well as incentives;
Effectively managing inventory levels;
Ensuring an attractive design and a high level of consumer appeal.
Charge too much, for example, or build too many, and a manufacturer’s business case can fall apart. Worse, that can have a long-term negative impact on trade-in and residual values.
The good news is that launch quality has been improving in recent years. Power’s 2009 IQS, released last month, revealed that while many new products still suffered nagging start-up defects, a number of others debuted with virtually no defects.
The inaugural 2009 Power Vehicle Launch Index, or VLI, shows similar improvements.
On a 1,000-point scale, the ’09 Hyundai Genesis scored highest among 27 new models, with a score of 689. Ford’s redesigned F-150 took the second spot, with a score of 673, followed by the 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan, at 663.