U.S. narrows car-quality gap
By Eric Mayne and Ed Garsten / The Detroit News
The quality gap between new cars and trucks from Detroit’s Big Three and foreign automakers continues to narrow, J.D. Power and Associates plans to report Wednesday when it releases its influential Initial Quality Study.
After trailing for many years, domestic automakers pulled even and ahead of some European rivals last year in the study, which tracks problems reported per 100 vehicles during the first three months of ownership.
While not disclosing how individual companies fared, J.D. Power spokesman Mike Greywitt said industrywide quality is up and the gap between domestics and foreign narrowed. All three Detroit automakers predict improvements when results of this year’s study are released.
“We are the only manufacturer to see continuous, year-after-year improvement since 1990,” said Steve Walukas, vice president of quality for DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group. “We can’t speculate at this point, but based on our products and processes, we will continue that trend.”
DaimlerChrysler ranked ninth last year, just behind Ford Motor Co., which showed the largest improvement — 5 percent — of any major automaker. Ford had 136 problems per 100 models, trailing General Motors Corp. and Nissan North America.
Louise Goeser, Ford’s vice president of quality, is optimistic about this year’s results.
“I expect improvement, but I don’t know how much,” she said Monday.
General Motors Corp. president Gary Cowger is looking to reverse the backslide the automaker took in last year’s study.
“Our internal studies show we’ll be making a nice improvement,” he said.
GM, which overtook Nissan Motor Co. two years ago to place fourth with 1.30 problems per vehicle, slipped to fifth in last year’s study.
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By Eric Mayne and Ed Garsten / The Detroit News
The quality gap between new cars and trucks from Detroit’s Big Three and foreign automakers continues to narrow, J.D. Power and Associates plans to report Wednesday when it releases its influential Initial Quality Study.
After trailing for many years, domestic automakers pulled even and ahead of some European rivals last year in the study, which tracks problems reported per 100 vehicles during the first three months of ownership.
While not disclosing how individual companies fared, J.D. Power spokesman Mike Greywitt said industrywide quality is up and the gap between domestics and foreign narrowed. All three Detroit automakers predict improvements when results of this year’s study are released.
“We are the only manufacturer to see continuous, year-after-year improvement since 1990,” said Steve Walukas, vice president of quality for DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group. “We can’t speculate at this point, but based on our products and processes, we will continue that trend.”
DaimlerChrysler ranked ninth last year, just behind Ford Motor Co., which showed the largest improvement — 5 percent — of any major automaker. Ford had 136 problems per 100 models, trailing General Motors Corp. and Nissan North America.
Louise Goeser, Ford’s vice president of quality, is optimistic about this year’s results.
“I expect improvement, but I don’t know how much,” she said Monday.
General Motors Corp. president Gary Cowger is looking to reverse the backslide the automaker took in last year’s study.
“Our internal studies show we’ll be making a nice improvement,” he said.
GM, which overtook Nissan Motor Co. two years ago to place fourth with 1.30 problems per vehicle, slipped to fifth in last year’s study.
source