Ford’s Quality in Par With Toyota

The results of the new studies conducted on Dearborn automakers comprising of Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda---shows that the initial vehicle quality of Ford Motor Co. is in only in par with Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Corp. The three automakers were ranked second place. On the other hand, Honda Motor Co. was chosen as the quality leader.

The RDA Group is a market research firm based in Bloomfield Hills that conducts a survey for Ford manufacturer of top-of-the-line Mercury mufflers. The research group in ask 31,000 new vehicle owners of 2007 model cars and trucks from all full-line manufacturers regarding problems that they encountered during the first 90 days of ownership.

The Detroit News in turn evaluates the findings with sources familiar with the report. And according to these sources four Ford vehicles namely the Mercury Milan, Ford Expedition EL, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Shelby GT-500 -- led their segments in initial quality. The main objective of Ford for hiring a research group is to improve further its quality as it tries to hold on to the remaining US market share after years of continuously losing to foreign competitors.

The results of the RDA study show that Ford cars and trucks had 1,458 problems per 1000 vehicles which is 32 problems short of the industry average of 1,490 and 128 lower than what Ford customers has reported last year.

For Ford’s North American brands the results were even better showing Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln with only 1,456 problems per 1,000 vehicles. According to some sources the overall number was slightly affected by the automaker’s European brands. The Mercury Milan with its quality Mercury muffler was one of Ford’s problem-free vehicles obtaining only 910 problems per 1000 vehicles.

Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari has confirmed the existence of the report but refused to give any details of the said findings. However she said that the company will release the details as soon as possible but they prefer to tell the employees first. She also added that the company’s main concern for now is improving quality which is the very core of the company’s Way Forward turnaround plan.

According to Gattari, "We are pleased with the direction of our quality, but we're not satisfied. This is something we have to continue to be diligent with. Quality, along with safety, innovation and design, are our top priorities in delivering more vehicles that customers want."

Attracting consumers…
Although the RDA study has shown that Ford is catching up with its Japanese rivals but it is still behind its Asian competitors when it comes to customer satisfaction which is vital since it determines whether or not customers would endorse the brand to other buyers.

RDA has been conducting an annual survey for Ford way back late 1990s. The research group is also doing the same studies for other automakers. Its findings are as reliable as the closely-watched initial quality survey conducted independently by J.D. Power and Associates of Westlake Village, California. And same with the RDA findings, the J.D. Power study has also shown that Ford’s brands only comes second to Toyota.

Other independent analysts are also conducting their own studies such as the notably Consumer Reports magazine which has taken note of the quality improvement in Ford and recently announced the Milan and its Blue Oval sibling, the Ford Fusion as the most impressive new vehicles for the 2007 model year.

David Champion, senior director for automotive testing at Consumer Reports said, "We see Ford as the top domestic in many ways. They've realized they're going to be eaten for lunch if they don't produce reliable vehicles."

Champion also added that the new products of Ford shows some remarkable improvement compared to the previous products that the automaker was offering a few years back. He said that it’s good that Ford is finally learning from its past mistakes as well as from its Japanese affiliate, Mazda Motor Corp. which shares similar production practices with Toyota. However he also said that it would take more than strong initial quality reports to convince car buyer to patronize the brand.