"Who are those guys?".--Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid In the J.D. Power 2003 Initial Quality Study, Toyota proved itself, once again, to be a quality juggernaut. It scored #1 in compact car (Prius); entry luxury (Lexus ES The Lexus ES series is a family of mid-size luxury sedans produced by the Lexus division of Toyota since 1989. Now in its fifth generation, the series has been consistently built on the Toyota Camry platform with a V6 engine, automatic transmission, and front-wheel drive. 300); mid luxury (Lexus G5 300/GS 430); premium luxury (Lexus LS The Lexus LS is a full-size luxury sedan that serves as the flagship of Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota. Since Lexus' 1989 debut, four generations of the V8-powered, rear-wheel drive Lexus LS have been produced. 430); midsize SUV (Toyota Highlander); luxury SUV (Lexus RX 300). Toyota Motor Sales, USA, topped the chart for corporate quality. One might just think that this is an American thing, a certain fascination with Toyota and a blind eye toward defects. (Or so some domestic OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and execs would like to think.) One might expect that things would be different elsewhere. Say, in Germany, land of Mercedes and BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. . But even there, Toyota is proving to be a quality leader, according to the J.D. Power 2003 Germany Customer Satisfaction Index Study, which was published in cooperation with mot Die Autozeitschrift. The study surveyed more than 16,000 owners who had two years' experience with their vehicles. There were 29 brands and 115 models included in the study. Of the seven segments, Toyota takes #1 in five: small car (Yaris); lower-medium car (Corolla corolla: see petal. ); upper-medium car (Avensis); sports car (Celica); SUV (RAV4). Where did it miss? The Mercedes E-Class topped executive/luxury car and the Renault Scenic scored for MPV (MusicPhotoVideo) A playlist standard for music, image and video collections introduced in 2002 by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA). An "MPV Writer" is software that creates the playlist, and an "MPV Reader" is software that can discover and read it. . At the brand level, Toyota was tops: 841 points our of 1,000, which put it in front of Mazda (810), BMW (809), Honda (808), and Subaru (806). The industry average was 781. Ford scored 784, and GM's Opel finished "at or below industry average." Apparently, quality translates very well.--GSV |
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