Thought the following was interesting:
Beleaguered Ford tops quality rankings - MSN Money
By The Associated Press
Ford supplanted Toyota as the leader of the pack in initial quality rankings, taking the top spot in five of 19 segments in the 2007 survey by J.D. Power and Associates, released Wednesday.
Porsche again dominated the overall ranking of brands, averaging 91 problems per 100 vehicles, as it had last year. That compared with a 2007 industry average of 125 problems per 100 vehicles. Last year it was 124.
Ford Motor earned segment awards for the Ford Mustang, Lincoln Mark LT, Lincoln MKZ, Mercury Milan and Mazda MX-5 Miata. Mazda is 33.4% owned by Ford.
Toyota Motor, which grabbed the top spot in 11 segments last year, captured only four this year -- the 4Runner, Sequoia, Tacoma and Lexus RX350/RX400h.
Ford's Lincoln brand took third in overall nameplate rankings, averaging 100 problems per 100 vehicles. It was behind Porsche and Toyota's Lexus luxury brand, which averaged 94 problems per vehicles.
Toyota slips as Ford rises
Lincoln jumped from 12th in 2006.
"We saw dramatic improvement from Lincoln," said Neal Oddes, J.D. Power's director of product research and analysis. "It was a fantastic year for the Mercury Milan, with dramatic improvements in terms of defects."
Overall, he said, Ford's strength came from new launches such as the Edge, MKX and MKZ.
Toyota had seen its list of quality leaders decrease in a quality study released Monday by Strategic Vision, a San Diego market research company and consultant to automakers. Despite improving its overall quality, Toyota led in one category in that study -- down from four in 2006. South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor led in five categories, outperforming its Japanese, European and U.S. competitors. Last year, it had no winners.
Joe Ivers, J.D. Power's executive director of quality and customer satisfaction, said there's no clear answer for Toyota's drop. But several vehicles brought its quality performance down this year, including the Corolla, Prius and Lexus models.
It is worth noting, he said, that Toyota executives have been speaking publicly about their concerns about managing to maintain its historically high quality during a time of rapid growth.
"We're not used to seeing their vehicles go backward from a quality standpoint, and several of them did," he said. "It's no big change, but when things go backward for Toyota, it's unusual."
I feel bad for berating Ford and GM about their problems. Apparently, being #1 is a tough job for any auto company. I personally am happy to see that even foreign car makers are bound to stumble now and then like their domestic counterparts.