Recently, there has been a remarkable increase in early problems and customer complaints in automobiles❌

🔧HOW MANY MONTHS DOES IT TAKE TO FIX THE QUALITY PROBLEM?

🔧Is the field data accurate and fast recovery?

🔧How much do warranty costs with quality problems affect manufacturers?

Let’s evaluate this situation and its implications for manufacturers (OEMs) with McKinsey’s research of 40 senior aftermarket services and quality managers working at manufacturers, published in June 2026.

📌 Current Status:

✅ ~4 MONTHS: While it takes an average of “7 WEEKS” to verify the root cause of a quality problem, “ADDITIONAL 9-10 WEEKS” are needed to develop a solution and implement it in the field.

In other words, the process can take about “4 months” in total.

📌The Magnitude of Warranty Costs:

✅ ~2%: Today, warranty costs in the global automotive industry have reached approximately $58 billion and account for approximately 2.2% of industry sales.

📌Warranty Budget = R&D Budget.

✅ ~4%: For some OEMs, warranty costs have exceeded 4% of revenue, competing with annual R&D spending.

📌Historic Surge:

✅ ~X2: According to research, warranty-related costs have doubled in the last 10 years.

📌How Do Manufacturers Collect Field Data?

According to the research, the most used data sources in quality analytics are:

Warranty records, Vehicle telematics, Customer surveys, Control units data…

✅ ~15%: Despite all this data, “ONLY 15%” of OEMs have managed to collect quality-related data in a completely centralized structure!

⚠️ Agency’s Analysis:

If the OEM still continues to look at it with the logic of “warranty cost is only 2% of turnover”, if product development times take 4-5 months, this affects not only the model and its second-hand value, but also the “brand” and maybe even the perception of the entire production country!

➡️Competition in the automotive industry is no longer only shaped by producing more vehicles, but also by interpreting millions of data from vehicles faster and turning them into action.

At this point, “advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence support” come to the fore.

✅According to McKinsey research, OEMs that adopt this approach expect a “5-10% or more improvement” in warranty costs.

In my opinion, the real gain is much more valuable than the cost advantage: being able to foresee the problem and be open to solutions!

NOW, Fast, incident free innovation is needed…. 🧰Kaynak: McKinsey & Company – When Warranty Costs Rival R&D Spend: Remaking Vehicle Quality with AI (Haziran 2026)

🧰 Source: McKinsey & Company – When Warranty Costs Rival R&D Spend: Remaking Vehicle Quality with AI (Haziran 2026