South Korea's leading automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp.

continued to receive high marks for their customer service in China this year, a survey showed Tuesday, while rapid advances by local competitors caused some concerns.


In an annual survey conducted by U.S. marketing information service firm J.D. Power, Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture of Hyundai Motor, received the third highest mark of 786 points out of possible 1,000 for its customer services, down one notch from a year earlier.

Dongfeng Yueda Kia, a local venture of Kia Motors, received 769 points to tie Changan Ford, a local joint venture of U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co., in the fourth place, according to the survey.

It marked the fourth consecutive year both Hyundai and Kia were ranked top five in terms of customer service satisfaction.

Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot, both joint ventures between China's Dongfeng Motor Corp. and French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, were ranked the highest, in that order.

While joint ventures between Chinese and foreign automakers took the top five places, the following five places were held by stand-alone Chinese automakers, indicating recent advances in customer services by Chinese carmakers.

In 2015, only three Chinese automakers were ranked in the top 10.

Meanwhile, in a separate poll measuring Chinese customers' preference for cars from different countries and regions, South Korean automakers took the top spot for the fifth consecutive year, followed by European and U.S. carmakers, in that order. (Yonhap)