The 2012 Ipsos Quality Awards, previously known as the Synovate Quality Awards, has revealed the lowest scores and the best results in the history of the survey. The Ipsos Quality Awards is considered to be the benchmark in measuring customer perspective on experiences and vehicle quality in the South African automotive industry.

Ipsos Quality Awards reveal ??less problems for South African cars

The Ipsos Quality Awards is the largest survey of its kind in South Africa and forms part of Ipsos’ Competitive Customer Experience which is a study that examines vehicle product quality and sales and service experience. The study gathers information from 22000 South African vehicle owners annually. Respondents are interviewed three months after purchasing a vehicle to ascertain if any problems have been experienced in the first three months of ownership. The score is calculated as ‘Problems Per 100 (PP100) vehicles’ which is a globally recognised approach.

“The problems per 100 vehicles index (PP100) in South Africa has shown a sharp decrease with an overall improvement in quality of 52% in the last four years” states Patrick Busschau, Ipsos Automotive Business Unit Director. The overall score for the passenger vehicle market is 41 Problems Per 100 vehicles.

??Top Quality Cars

The winner in the passenger vehicle segment was the Toyota Yaris 1.0 with a score of 24 PP100. In the small hatchback segment the Toyota Auris and Toyota Yaris 1.3 came out on top with a score of 13 PP100. The Mercedes-Benz took first place in the top hatchback segment with a score of 21 PP100. In the small sedan segment the Toyota Corolla reigned supreme with a score of 32 PP100 while the Audi A4 came out tops in the medium sedan segment with a score of 26 PP100. The top sedan went to the Toyota Corolla 1.6 and 2.0 with a score of 19 PP100.

The top executive was awarded to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class with a score of 13 PP100. The Audi A5 and Mercedes-Benz SLK tied in the sports coupe segment with scores of 28 PP100 and 29 PP100 respectively. The small recreational vehicle segment was headed by the Nissan X-Trail with a score of 13 PP100 while the large recreational vehicle segment was won by the Mercedes-Benz M-Class with a score of 12 PP100. The top performing Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) was the Mercedes-Benz B-Class with a score of 10 PP100.

The Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment was awarded to the Isuzu KB Petrol Single Cab and the Diesel Single Cab with scores of 21 PP100 and 38PP100 respectively. The Nissan NP200, with a score of 34 PP100 came out on top in the three-quarter ton segment.

Best Brands

The Brand Category awards were dominated by Toyota who won The Best Volume Passenger Car Brand (tied with Mazda), Best One Ton Double Cab LCV Brand Overall, Best Local Plant Manufacturing Passenger Vehicles and Best Overall Light Commercial Brand. Mercedes-Benz won Best Premium Passenger Car Brand. Nissan and Toyota tied to win Best Local Plant Manufacturing Light Commercial Vehicles and Isuzu won the Best Single Cab Light Commercial Brand.