Thought this was a pretty interesting article.
The headline in this newspaper - Toyota and GM lead in quality survey - said it all. At a time when General Motors Corp. is taking one body blow after another, it was interesting to see that at least the company's efforts to produce high quality vehicles are being recognized.
Though GM did not have as many segment leaders as Toyota in the J.D. Power initial quality study and ranked lower overall, it had more winners than any other automaker. A closer look at the report reveals that much of Toyota's success is based on its Lexus products. This is not to diminish Lexus; winning first place in five market segments is an outstanding achievement. But Toyota's relatively poor showing is significant. Aside from the Prius winning the compact car segment (and the Corolla appearing as a runner-up), the only Toyota-badged vehicles to take top spots, or even appear in the rankings as runners up, were all trucks, such the Sienna minivan and 4Runner and RAV4.
Look at the high volume car segments and GM dominates; entry midsize car winner is the Chevrolet Malibu/Maxx, the premium midsize car award goes to the Buick Century, with two GM vehicles in runner up positions, and the Buick LeSabre takes top spot in the full size category.
Notably absent in any of these car categories are any Toyota or Honda or Nissan products. Where, one might ask, is the mighty Toyota Camry or the Honda Accord? Equally worrying from the Japanese automakers' point of view should be the appearance of the Hyundai Sonata as a runner up in the entry mid-size car.
The Malibu's win in its segment was especially impressive considering that it is a new model and typically first year teething problems undermine new vehicles in the study.
To a certain extent, this phenomenon was responsible for an overall slip in the study by Chrysler and Dodge brands, which both launched several new models over the last year. On the other hand Chrysler Group's Jeep brand performed well overall and parent DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes marque pulled itself back up to fifth place overall among brands, tied with Cadillac (which continued to make a strong showing.)
As for Ford Motor Co. the picture was mixed; its luxury brand Jaguar scored very well, second only to Lexus in the overall brand rankings. Ford's Lincoln division also made a credible showing, but ratings of the Volvo and Mercury nameplates slipped. Among Ford's own products, the Five Hundred, F-150, Explorer Sport Trac, Ranger and Mustang all appeared either as winners or runners up in their segments. But the automaker's overall ranking slipped and was below the industry average, as were GM and DaimlerChrysler.
The final word should go to GM's Hummer brand, which did a miraculous job of improving from dead last in last year's survey to a strong position just behind Nissan's Infiniti division and the other luxury nameplates. Reportedly one reason for the turnaround is that Hummer dealers have been making buyers aware of their vehicles' relatively low gas mileage. Apparently Hummer buyers in the last survey complained about their fuel consumption, a flaw that helped undermine the brand's score. I still find it puzzling that an intelligent buyer of an H1 or H2 Hummer could seriously be surprised by the fuel economy of these vehicles. Perhaps it just goes to show the fickle nature of the American consumer.
Patrick '93 Cobra