JD Power recently released its results for the 2017 Tech Experience Index Study and Chevrolet and Audi have come out on top, with Kia, Hyundai, and Lincoln trailing close behind.
The study, according to JD Power, measured the driver experiences and interactions with 35 types of automotive technology during the first 90 days of ownership. The categories for the 35 pieces of technology included entertainment and connectivity, driving assistance, comfort and convenience, navigation, and smartphone mirroring. Satisfaction was scored on a 1,000-point scale.
Driver satisfaction, as the study found, was the highest in the large segment, with the compact segment following closely behind. The compact premium segment came in third place, the midsize premium segment in fourth, the small premium segment in fifth, and the small segment came in last place. But perhaps most surprising was that the average owner satisfaction rating for both premium and non-premium owners was even, at a relatively high 750 out of 1,000.
One of the study’s major findings are that owners are extremely satisfied with safety-oriented technologies, including collision protection systems. Technology directly related to collision protection systems had an index score of 787. Delving further into collision protection systems, the study found that owners considered blind spot warning and detection as well as back-up cameras to be the most helpful with a rating of 8.61 and 8.56 respectively, on a 10-point scale.
On the other end of the spectrum, owners weren’t too satisfied with their vehicles’ navigation systems, which scored just 714 points. And owners also found items that they interacted with on a daily basis, including the instrument cluster, seats, HVAC unit, and phone and entertainment controls, to be more difficult to operate, as the systems declined by an average of 83 points from last year.
For the second year in a row, the Chevrolet Camaro took the top spot in the midsize segment, while the Tahoe snagged first place for the large segment. Audi also had two vehicles rank the highest in their respective segments – the A3 for the small premium segment and the Q7 for the midsize premium segment. For the small segment, the Kia Niro ranked the highest, the Lincoln MKC won the honors for the compact premium segment, and for the compact segment, the Hyundai Elantra ranked at the top.
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