It’s the most wonderful time of the year…wait, wrong month. Still, it’s the time of the year when automotive publications and other organizations start wrapping up competitions and “Best of List” before automakers start releasing 2025 model year vehicles. One organization in particular, J.D. Power, recently finished its 2024 U.S. Initial Quality StudySM (IQS). Conducted over several months at a time, every year, we have something to look forward to. Who’s doing well and who’s not? This year, it’s all about Ram Truck, ranking the number one spot amongst all other automakers for the second time in the last four years.

Conducted from July 2023 through May 2024, like all J.D. Power surveys, the rankings aren’t just based on personal bias or a panel of judges. The results come straight from the consumers. Now in its 38th year, the J.D. Power 2024 IQS rankings are based this year on responses from returned surveys from 99,144 purchasers and lessees of new 2024 model-year vehicles. Surveyed after 90 days of ownership, this is the perfect window to find out how well an automobile is holding up, or if it’s already starting to show its age. For the first time, J.D. Power also included repair visit data (based on hundreds of thousands of real-world events) in the IQS. Usually, we’d expect to see that sort of thing on a study for residual value, but if a brand new vehicle needs repairs within the first three months of ownership, consumers will want to know about it, and so do we.

The major culprit this year is new technology. With all the cool tech coming to automobiles in the last few years, it’s a bit of a bummer. Cool stuff like Kia Connect in the Kia EV3 offers even more personalization options with apps consumers can download to completely change the appearance of the interior cabin. Automakers are looking into software-defined vehicles (SDVs) to develop automobiles that run on operating system (OS) software. Chrysler announced its new fully-electric Halcyon concept with an unlimited all-electric range (AER) and fully autonomous car technology. It’s madness, I tell you!

“It is not surprising that the introduction of new technology has challenged manufacturers to maintain vehicle quality…However, the industry can take solace in the fact that some problem areas such as voice recognition and parking cameras are seen as less problematic now than they were a year ago.” - Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power

That’s a shame, because we’re looking forward to all of this cool stuff. Ah, well, onto the rankings. As we mentioned, Ram Truck was ranked the highest automaker in this year’s J.D. Power 2024 IQS. Automakers are ranked on a metric of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) to get their ranking, Ram Truck only had 149 PP100.

Another Stellantis brand surprisingly did not do so well. Last year, Dodge was the highest ranked automaker during the J.D. Power 2023 IQS, with only 140 PP100. In 2024, Dodge plummeted all the way to the bottom of internal gasoline engine (ICE) automakers. Gotta mix the bad news with some good news, so aside from Ram Truck ranking the top, the Ram 1500 was also ranked the highest for large light duty pickup truck segment. Let’s have another round of applause, please.

What crazy results we got this year. Ram Truck may be taking over the crown for Stellantis automakers, and who wouldn’t be happy about that? So far, Ram Truck seems to be the only Stellantis automaker dedicated to rolling out new alternative fuel sources like electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Want to find a pickup truck that won’t break down? Find your new Ram Truck when you shop online for a pickup truck with NowCar.

Photo Source/Copyright: Ram Truck