Detroit nabs awards for plant, vehicle quality
By Staff -- Purchasing, 7/16/1998 2:00:00 AM
Two new quality studies from J.D. Power and Associates say the U.S. auto industry produces some of the best quality cars and trucks in the business. The studies, which monitored the number of problems more than 58,000 new-vehicle owners experienced in the first three months of ownership of 1998-model-year cars and trucks, gives U.S. automakers high marks for both manufacturing plant quality and vehicle quality.
Ford Motor Co. gets top honors in J.D. Power's plant quality awards by putting out more quality vehicles than any other automaker in North America. Ford's St. Thomas, Ontario-based plant is best with new owners reporting 120 problems per 100 vehicles. The St. Thomas plant builds Ford's large, rear-wheel-drive cars, including the Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis. Sister plants in Chicago and Michigan rank second and third, respectively, in quality output among North American North America-based manufacturing facilities.
BMW makes a similar sweep in Europe, with its manufacturing plants in Dingolfing, Munich, and Regensbur, Germany, producing more quality vehicles than any other auto plant on the continent.
In Asia, Honda's Sayama, Japan-based plant takes top quality honors for the second year in a row. Toyota's plant in Tahara, Japan, which produces the Lexus LS400 and the new GS 300/400, is a close second, followed by Nissan's Oppama, Japan, plant, which builds the Infiniti I30 and Nissan Maxima.
J.D Power's completely redesigned Initial Quality Study, which focuses on the quality performance of individual vehicles, reports that Ford and Chrysler Corp. also produce the best quality cars and trucks in five of thirteen vehicle categories.
Ford takes top-quality honors in the compact car, full-size sport utility vehicle (SUV), and luxury SUV categories.
Chrysler nabs its first-ever initial quality study award for its entry-level midsize car Cirrus as well as its all-new premium midsize car offering, the Concorde.
J.D. Power researchers say the high marks for the Concorde are especially impressive because "all-new vehicles typically launch with quality 'teething' problems." In addition, the Concorde is one of the first vehicles whose development process relied heavily on computer-generated design instead of clay modeling and physical prototypes.
Honda's Prelude, CR-V, and Odyssey are the best-quality vehicles in the sporty car, compact SUV, and compact van segments, respectively. Toyota's Lexus Division's LS400 earns the best score of any vehicle in the study for the fifth year out of the last six.
Overall, the industry average problems per 100 vehicles for 1998-models nearly doubled over 1997 to 176. However, J.D. Power researchers attribute the increase to a study redesign, which added new categories and weighs reported problems differently than in years past.
All told, the new study covers 135 specific problem areas over nine vehicle sections.
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