Navigation was the multimedia feature that owners of new cars rated clearly better in J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study, with satisfaction rising 17 points on a 1,000-point scale to 933. J.D. Power released the results on September 9, 2026, after surveying 78,514 purchasers and lessees of 2026 model-year vehicles 90 days into ownership. Fieldwork ran from June 2025 through May 2026.
The gain stands out because almost everything around navigation in the dashboard did not move the same way.
A 933 score built on fewer usability and accuracy complaints
J.D. Power’s release for the 2026 study attributes the rise to a decline in navigation problems, “driven by reductions in usability and accuracy complaints.” Those are the two things a driver notices first: whether the map is easy to operate and whether it routes correctly. The release does not break navigation out into its own problems-per-100 figure, so the 17-point gain on the satisfaction index is the measure on which the finding stands, and the release leaves the prior-year navigation score unstated.
Wards Auto, summarizing the release, pairs the navigation result with speakers, which also improved. Navigation and audio quality were the bright patches in a study whose main finding was a persistent infotainment problem, and the trade publication notes that infotainment was the only category in the study to worsen from the year before.
Infotainment at 42.4 problems per 100 vehicles
The same study counted 42.4 multimedia problems per 100 vehicles, and infotainment accounted for 25 percent of all problems owners reported. CarPro put the 2025 figure for comparison at 42.3, which makes the category virtually unchanged overall even as navigation climbed. J.D. Power’s 2025 study, based on 92,694 owners of 2025 model-year vehicles, had reported 42.3 problems per 100 and said five of the ten most frequently cited problems involved multimedia, according to its own release.
Lisa Boor, director of customer success for OEM solutions at J.D. Power, framed the cause as software. “As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, quality issues are leaning less toward hardware failures and more toward system complexity, software performance and connectivity,” she said in the release. Wards Auto adds that automakers are responding with over-the-air updates and data analytics, and cites Hyundai Motor Group’s announced plan for a “data flywheel” that collects vehicle data to improve infotainment through regular software updates.
Google, HERE and the vehicles at the top of the list
Beyond the 933 score, CarPro’s account of the study reports that Google’s navigation system in the Honda Civic narrowly outscored HERE’s system in the Cadillac Optiq. The same account lists the BMW X6 as the highest-ranked vehicle overall, with the Hyundai Palisade leading the midsize and large segment, the Kia K4 the small and compact segment and the Jaguar F-Pace the premium small and compact segment. The Acura Integra carried the best-rated speaker system, a Panasonic setup.
Two different map suppliers finishing a point apart suggests that the navigation improvement is not tied to one automaker’s engineering. A gap that small sits within the resolution of a 1,000-point survey index, and J.D. Power’s release does not publish a navigation ranking that would settle the order beyond that pair.
AutoConnected Car’s coverage carries a second Boor line: “consumers do not grade infotainment systems on a curve.” Her point, in the AutoConnected Car report, is that brands simplifying the experience while delivering reliable execution are best positioned to improve quality. Navigation’s 933 is the study’s one clear example of a narrow function where focused fixes registered in the owner survey while the broader infotainment problem rate held at 42.4.
Ninety days, 78,514 owners and a 1,000-point index
The method explains what the 933 does and does not capture. J.D. Power surveys owners about 90 days after purchase or lease, so the navigation score reflects first impressions of a system that has been in a driveway for about three months, not the experience of a vehicle several years old. The 2026 sample of 78,514 is smaller than the 92,694 owners behind the 2025 study, and both are limited to vehicles of their own model year.
ConsumerAffairs, covering the same release, reports that infotainment was the only major category to worsen in 2026 and that the five most frequent problems industry-wide all involve infotainment. It also relays Boor’s advice that automakers which simplify their systems while making them more reliable are likely to achieve better quality results. Against that backdrop, a 17-point rise in navigation satisfaction is a gain inside the one area of the car where owners reported more trouble, not a sign that the dashboard as a whole got easier to live with.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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