Luxury vehicles dominate total quality survey

[eaton53]

13 Chrysler Sebring Sedan 842
15 Dodge Avenger 841
16 Toyota Camry 836

To finish behind the Avenger and Sebring in any survey is beyond embarassing.

[GMC-70]

Originally Posted by eaton53

To finish behind the Avenger and Sebring in any survey is beyond embarassing.

Ya-where is VCDJ so he can explain this to us in rational terms of course

[doh]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080528/vehic...lity.html?.v=4

Luxury vehicles dominate total quality survey, but quality drops for first time in 4 years


DETROIT (AP) -- Luxury brands once again dominated an annual U.S. automobile quality survey by a California research company, but total quality dropped for the first time in four years, the company said.

BMW led all brands in the results released Wednesday by San Diego-based Strategic Vision Inc., followed closely by Hummer, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Infiniti, Lexus, Land Rover, Cadillac, Lincoln and Volkswagen.

Volkswagen AG, which includes Audi, led all corporations with a total quality index score of 892 out of 1,000 possible points. General Motors Corp. finished second as a corporation at 867, followed by Ford Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., which tied for third at 862. Toyota Motor Corp. finished fifth, at the industry average of 860.

VW, GM and Ford were the only corporations showing improvement in this year's survey.

To get the rankings, Strategic Vision calculated the index based on survey questions about reliability, vehicle characteristics, dealership experience, styling, interior and exterior design and their overall perception of initial quality, said Alexander Edwards, president of the company's automotive division.

Each of the people answering the survey had to have owned their vehicles for two to three months so they could adequately judge them, Edwards said.

Edwards said overall industry quality dropped from 864 points in 2007 to 860 this year, the first drop since the 2004 survey.

The decline came because some vehicles fell short of customers' technology expectations, he said. For example, many thought their cars should have a simple, low-cost navigation system or keyless entry, he said. But companies were reluctant to add cost to cars, fearing the predicted industry downturn in 2008, Edwards said.

"Our position here with the technology is they didn't take things as far as they needed to go," he said.

Ford Motor Co. had five vehicles with the highest scores in the 19 market segments measured by Strategic Vision, while Toyota Motor Corp. had four. The two companies tied in one other category.

Ford won in the large car category with the Mercury Sable, the convertible under $30,000 segment with the Ford Mustang, the small specialty car segment with the Volvo C30, the medium crossover category with the Ford Edge and the heavy duty pickup with the Ford F-250-350.

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by GMC-70

Ya-where is VCDJ so he can explain this to us in rational terms of course

Be nice. Not everyone speaks English as their primary language.

[TruckMan]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

2008 Total Quality Award Winners


Luxury SUV Segment
Rank Vehicle TQI Score
1 BMW X5 907
Segment Average: 900
2 Mercedes-Benz ML 900
3 Hummer H3 899
4 Mercedes-Benz GL 895
5 Lincoln Navigator 894
6 Land Rover Range Rover Sport 893
7 Lexus GX 470 880

http://www.strategicvision.com/auto_...ard=TQA&seg=23

And how is a Hummer a luxury vehicle? I've seen them described that way before, and it still confuses me.

[ZR1-S10]

I just wish GM would show this sort of thing in their ads. It's hard to change perception when toyota has one of there ads saying they have high quality every 5 seconds.

It's time to stop playing nice and shove this in toyota's smug face!

[zete]

Originally Posted by TruckMan

And how is a Hummer a luxury vehicle? I've seen them described that way before, and it still confuses me.

I have friends who view Hummers as a luxury vehicle. I don't get it, but it is what it is. Perhaps it's their way of justifying the price and expense.

[63GrandSport001]

this is interesting news..........

[cbennie2]

Originally Posted by GMC-70

Ya-where is VCDJ so he can explain this to us in rational terms of course

This doesn't agree with his doom and gloom picture of GM, so it's not post worthy

[usa1]

Questionable results with lots of subjective measurements.

I don't think most people equate quality with things like "vehicle characteristics, dealership experience, styling, interior and exterior design"

This is the only way VW, a brand known for consistently bad "real" quality and reliability ranked so high. It also biases a lot towards luxury brands with all these soft measurements.

In essence, it's a useless measurement of "real" quality. They should call it "Total Experience" or something.

Mark