Infotainment accounts for 25% of all problems in new cars, J.D. Power says

Lisa Boor, director of customer success at J.D. Power, summed up the 2026 findings in one sentence: quality issues in new vehicles are leaning “less toward hardware failures and more toward system complexity, software performance and connectivity.” The firm’s 2026 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study, released September 9, 2026, backs that with a share: multimedia accounts for 25% of all vehicle problems reported by owners of new 2026 model-year vehicles. The rate behind it is 42.4 problems per 100 vehicles, essentially flat against the previous edition, and multimedia was the only major vehicle category that did not improve.

That share is a fraction of reported problems, not of vehicles: the 42.4 problems per 100 vehicles describes how often owners flagged something wrong with the multimedia system, and the 25% describes how much of every owner-reported problem total that category supplies. Both figures belong to the 2026 model year and to the first 90 days of ownership, which is when J.D. Power collects the responses.

The 78,514 owners behind the 25%

The percentage rests on a specific population. According to J.D. Power’s release, the sample is 78,514 purchasers and lessees of new 2026 model-year vehicles, surveyed after 90 days of ownership, with fieldwork running from June 2025 through May 2026. The problem data come from the firm’s Component Quality Reports, a dataset derived from its Initial Quality Study and APEAL Study. So “all problems” means all problems those owners reported in their first three months, not defects over the life of a vehicle.

The same release says the five most frequently reported defects across the industry involve infotainment. A category that makes up a quarter of the total also supplies the top five complaints, which is why the share reads as concentrated rather than spread across many small faults.

Initial Quality Study context

The multimedia result sits against a broader improvement. AutoGuide’s account of J.D. Power’s 2026 Initial Quality Study, drawn from the same 78,514 buyers combined with dealership repair records, reports an industry average of 175 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 192 the year before, with nine of ten categories improving. Infotainment stayed troublesome, mainly because of connectivity trouble with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

In that study, Frank Hanley, J.D. Power’s senior director of auto benchmarking, said: “As more technology is introduced into vehicles, keeping the experience simple matters more than ever.” AutoGuide also reports that among drivers who described distracted-driving issues, 46% blamed the infotainment system, against 18% who cited driver-assistance alerts.

Navigation’s 17-point gain and the winners

One piece of the multimedia study moved in the right direction. Navigation satisfaction rose 17 points on J.D. Power’s 1,000-point scale, to 933, and satisfaction with multimedia systems and speakers also improved, according to ConsumerAffairs’ summary of the study.

CarPro’s write-up names the top performers: the BMW X6 overall, the Hyundai Palisade among midsize and large vehicles, the Kia K4 among small and compact vehicles, and the Jaguar F-Pace in the small premium group. It adds that Mobis Parts America supplied the systems in four of the six top performers. The failures it lists are mostly ordinary ones: frozen displays, dropped phone connections, sluggish responses and interfaces more complicated than the task requires, frustrations sharpened by owners’ expectations of how a smartphone behaves.

Software complexity, not hardware

Boor’s diagnosis points at software rather than parts. WardsAuto’s coverage frames infotainment as the only category worsening while overall vehicle quality improved, and attributes the trend to system complexity rather than traditional hardware failure.

The Drive’s reporting on the study adds concrete cases from its own testing: the GMC Sierra EV and Hummer EV triggering distracted-driver alerts during basic screen operations, a BMW M5 Touring display going black during phone calls, and Toyota models with oversized displays that obstruct the view of the road and gauge-cluster animations lasting seven seconds. Its author, Andrew P. Collins, argues that screens are favored because they are far cheaper to build than mechanical knobs, a view that is his own and not a finding of the study. The study’s full data sit behind an enterprise subscription, so the 25% share and the 42.4 rate are the figures the public release supports.

J.D. Power’s Boor, as quoted by ConsumerAffairs, framed the result as unfinished work: the industry continues to make progress improving overall vehicle quality, she said, but multimedia remains a persistent challenge. The report’s own buyer advice, in that summary, is to connect a phone, test the audio sources, adjust the settings and run the navigation during a test drive. The two figures that carry the study, 25% of all problems and 42.4 per 100 vehicles, both come from owners who had lived with their 2026 vehicles for just three months.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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