Perceptions aside, GM, Ford can stand proud

[cincygoblue]

Perceptions aside, GM, Ford can stand proud
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By Roger Simmermaker

Ford and General Motors have taken turns besting the Toyota Camry in quality surveys for the past two years, but if you talk to many Americans -- especially the ones who would never consider supporting home-based auto companies -- you'd never know it.

Last year, the Chevrolet Impala beat the Camry in initial quality, according to J.D. Power & Associates. And Consumer Reports just announced that both the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan scored higher than both the Camry and the Honda Accord this year.

After the announcement, Ford's Director of Global Quality Debbe Yeager, referring to the struggle American companies have had overcoming the perceived and seemingly untarnishable reputation of their foreign rivals, commented: "It's a perception gap."

Even as GM and Ford have accumulated award after award on vehicle quality, you'd almost never know about such quality gains made by American companies.

The re's also the mythical perception that foreign automakers produce the most fuel efficient cars and that Detroit only makes gas-guzzlers when the truth is that all automakers -- including Toyota, Honda and Hyundai-Kia alike -- have allowed fuel economy to slide in the past 20 years since they all now sell bigger trucks and more SUVs.

Perhaps the biggest perception problem is that American automobile companies GM and Ford -- Chrysler is now German-owned -- squander all their money on plants overseas and foreign automakers build their factories in the United States. Foreign car lovers will surely point to Kia's plans to build its first-ever U.S. plant in Georgia, but they probably won't mention that they received $400 million in tax giveaways to do it, which translates into $160,000 per job.

Among the many benefits for the foreign-owned company, your tax dollars are going to be used for road improvements surrounding the complex, complete with flower beds and other beautification features. Hey, as long as we're going to allow states to bid for private jobs with our public tax dollars, we might as well make it look good, right?

And the foreign car lovers will probably also not tell you (or maybe they just don't know or don't want you to know) that GM and Ford pour more money into existing American facilities than foreign automakers spend on new plants, usually with little or no tax breaks. GM has already spent more than $500 million upgrading two transmission plants this year, and has spent nearly a billion dollars over the last decade, for example, for facility upgrades in Texas . . . . .

The rest of the article is at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06353/747147-28.stm
including something I didn't recall. This is Dependability, not Initial Quality where GM has already made significant progress . . . .

The J.D. Power 2006 Vehicle Dependability Survey reports that Mercury, Buick and Cadillac (in that order) grabbed the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots to beat Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW and everyone else (except Lexus) in having the least number of problems per 100 vehicles.

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[1931Chevy]

Now this is one guy that tells the truth where the truth is

[NINETY_EIGHT_REGENCY]

Great to see this posted here. I was going to post it too. I checked and it was a great read.

[tgagneguam]

One or two recent victories will not change Detroit's deserved negative image. If Detroit persists in its efforts to build class-leading vehicles, I'm convinced that consumers will return... if they display [the uncommon trait of] tenacity.

Taken another way, despite building crap for years, large numbers of consumers remained loyal to Detroit for quite some time.

To wit: change takes time.

[cfch3399]

As much as I want to, I don't buy it. As long as GM cars have lists of common problems posted on this and other sites, as long as GM still pays out more per car on warranty costs than any other car maker, all those articles are meaningless.

[Jkujo]

Good article. Hopefully with the new vehicles coming out at the Auto Show this year people will see that the Big 3 are serious about earning their money again.

CFCH3399: I think your statement is somewhat accurate. The only response we can give you is that a lot the blame can be put on the CSV's and older designs still being used for those studies. The truth is that those vehicles are/were poor. GM can only show what it has for plans of the future which so far look like they are trying to offer the public more than half baked vehicles. I think that the Aura, Lambda Triplets, and what we are seeing from Caddy are good examples of the future.

[jlmartin99]

Originally Posted by cincygoblue

The rest of the article is at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06353/747147-28.stm
including something I didn't recall. This is Dependability, not Initial Quality where GM has already made significant progress . . . .

.

Greetings cincygoblue,

Thanks for the article and I have independently discovered through research I performed in preparing to purchase two new luxury cars, just how well GM products are being produced today. Thanks again for the article.

JLM

[5 watt]

I think it to funny no one seems to know that Toyota imports almost half of there vehicles from out side NA. Even when you count cars form Canada as domestically made Toyota has already 1.1 Million imports this year. Domestically made vehicles by Toyota is down to 53% this year from 62% last year and domestic production is down 1%. By comparison Honda 73% & Nissan 90% import significantly less vehicles.

I do support transplants though. If you look at the domestic content sticker (don’t know why anyone would want to do that???) you will see transplant vehicles usually have 50 to 75% and up of there parts made form domestic sources (again US and CA). A vehicle made in Japan or Korea usually has less than 5% or nothing domestically made. Plus as a Tear1 OEM supplier we are starting to make inroads with foreign car companies.

Click for Data from Toyota, Honda & Nissan

[FordMan]

Originally Posted by cfch3399

As much as I want to, I don't buy it. As long as GM cars have lists of common problems posted on this and other sites, as long as GM still pays out more per car on warranty costs than any other car maker, all those articles are meaningless.

Hold up there, when talking of warranty costs, you have to consider that GM is the largest auto company.

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by FordMan

Hold up there, when talking of warranty costs, you have to consider that GM is the largest auto company.

So obviously they'd pay out more, right? Good point FordMan. Really it would probably be better to look at what the percentage is of what GM spends compare to it's competitor's percentages to figure out a true level of where they stand in the field.

[CBECK]

GM wouldn't have come out with a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty just to shove a foot in their mouth. So, obviously quality is way up for GM to offer this.

[WishIhadatruck]

GM has made huge improvements and offers some quality vehicles but it is sad that you have to "know" what vehicles of theirs to avoid. Luckily most of the bad ones are on their way out and the newest stuff appears to be pretty good.

[EldoFan]

Right on

[cfch3399]

The G6, the Aura's cousin, isn't free of problems. Same for the Cobalt. The Ws, albeit winning awards, have plently of problems, even though GM's been building these things for decades. The 360s share the CSVs infamy. It's GM's burden to prove that things have changed. GM's new warranty is still one of the worst in the industry and thus not very reassuring. The thing is that I'm not hearing anything from GM in terms of making quality the #1 issue. Design is great and all but a sexy lemon is still a lemon.

Originally Posted by Jkujo

CFCH3399: I think your statement is somewhat accurate. The only response we can give you is that a lot the blame can be put on the CSV's and older designs still being used for those studies. The truth is that those vehicles are/were poor. GM can only show what it has for plans of the future which so far look like they are trying to offer the public more than half baked vehicles. I think that the Aura, Lambda Triplets, and what we are seeing from Caddy are good examples of the future.

I am. That's why I said "per car" not "total."

Originally Posted by FordMan

Hold up there, when talking of warranty costs, you have to consider that GM is the largest auto company.

[camaro chris]

They need to take advantage of the fact that they have better quality cars then the Camry. I have never seen any commercial where they mention that, it would help them so much!