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Provider: Plunkett Research, Ltd.
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$199.0
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Toyota, Lexus slip in key dependability study
DETROIT |
DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota and its luxury Lexus brand slipped for the second consecutive year in an influential vehicle dependability study released on Thursday.
Toyota Motor Corp's (7203.T) Lexus fell to fourth in the J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study. Lexus had been No. 3 in the 2009 key quality ratings, losing the top spot for the first time since the once-dominant luxury line became part of the closely watched study.
The results come at a critical time for the world's top automaker, which is struggling to regain consumer trust after a damaging series of recalls that has tarnished its once-sterling reputation for quality and reliability.
Porsche, Ford Motor Co's (F.N) Lincoln and General Motors Co's GM.UL Buick won the top three rankings in the study, which tallies vehicle dependability based on problems reported in the first three years of ownership. Ford's Mercury nameplate ranked fifth, behind Lexus.
The Toyota brand slipped two notches from 2009 to the sixth spot, but still was the highest-ranking mainstream brand with four models placed among the most dependable in their segments, including the top-selling Prius hybrid.
Honda Motor Co's (7267.T) mainstream Honda line and the blue oval Ford nameplate followed Toyota in the list.
The J.D. Power rankings are closely watched by automakers since they are seen as a key indicator of the resale value of vehicles and customer loyalty.
The study is based on responses from more than 52,000 owners of 2007 model-year vehicles and was fielded between October and December. Toyota launched the first of its recalls over unintended acceleration in late November.
Ford, the only major U.S. automaker not to restructure under bankruptcy in 2009, outperformed rivals with all of its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands placed in the top 10 of the list.
Lincoln showed the most significant improvement in quality, climbing six positions from 2009.
The study also showed that seven of the 10 models with the lowest incidence of problems in the industry are from GM and Ford.
GM's Cadillac DTS luxury sedan had the fewest problems, with 76 issues per 100 vehicles, compared with the industry average of 155 problems. That marked the first time in more than a decade that a domestic model has scored the least number of problems in the study.
J.D. Power said that for several brands including Cadillac, Ford, Hyundai (005380.KS), Lincoln and Mercury, consumer perceptions have not kept pace with their actual performance.
"It takes considerable time to positively change consumer perceptions of quality and dependability -- sometimes a decade or more -- so it is vital for manufacturers to continually improve quality and also to convince consumers of these gains," said David Sargeant, vice president of research at J.D. Power.
Chrysler LLC, which emerged from bankruptcy in June under the management of Fiat (FIA.MI), saw all of its Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands ranked below average in the study.
Chrysler was placed 20th, Dodge 28th and Jeep 34th in the study, which ranks 37 major nameplates.
(Reporting by Soyoung Kim, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
There is an American Company that cares less about the safety of their customers than Toyota (if you can believe that). Consumer Reports (a biased magazine) built their reputation and customer base by steering Americans away from domestic autos. For years now they have recommended Toyota’s regardless of performance and safety. They built almost a cult following customer base that blindly believed the big three (Toyota, Honda & Nissan) were the only manufacturer that produced safe reliable vehicles. Consumer Reports fed their cult following to sell more magazines. They trashed Ford, GM & Chrysler every opportunity and put Toyota on a pedestal. If you read CRs forums you would understand this is exactly what CR’s customer base (cult) wanted to hear. Consumer Reports has long ignored the safety of Toyota vehicles. For example: CR’s two highest scoring (score derived by auto testers) vehicles (Lexus LS460 & Toyota Avalon) actually posted the lowest scores on CR’s accident avoidance test. The LS460 actually obtained CRs highest test score @ 99 out of a 100 yet it is not capable of avoiding an accident. To add further insult to the domestics, CR’s reliability surveys were only sent to CRs customer base and not a random audience like reputable surveys such as J. D. Powers. CR’s survey leads the witness. Therefore CRs reliability survey data does not correlate with data taken from random surveys. Consumer Reports auto testers were well aware of Toyota’s safety issues for years now. They ignored the data and recommended every single Toyota product until days after Toyota issued the recall and stopped selling vehicles. CR is well aware of Toyota’s woes (Tundra is plagued with rotted brakelines, rotted frames, bad ball joints and failing camshaft, sticking gas pedals, poorly designed gas pedals, engine sludge issues dangerous engine hesitations, poor accident avoidance speeds, an electronic module that can cause unexplained acceleration, faulty brakes and much more). We should hold CR liable for the deaths since they recommended Toyota’s to their customers even though they knew about their safety issues for years now.
