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Automotive News & Views Inside Line Article Comments Article Comments: Perception Is Reality
149 messages, Last post on Feb 12, 2007 at 1:54 PM
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Article comments for Perception Is Reality - Witness the tale of two companies — Toyota and General Motors. Despite recalls and public relations woes, Toyota's image of bulletproof quality persists, and sales and market share rise. Despite concrete evidence to the contrary, GM's reputation for inferior quality remains, while sales and market share decline. (more)
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Has your perception of certain manufacturers changed recently? Read Michelle Krebs's new column and post your observations here. Perception Is Reality |
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Replying to: KarenS (Sep 07, 2006 7:37 am) |
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| ...I'd have to say I don't trust the quality of Toyota products like I used to. My parents' various Camry's back in the late 80's/early 90's were pretty much bullet-proof, but I don't think that's as much the case today. | |
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But I can see how the recent spat of recalls over in Toyota-land can fuel the "GM will dominate now that Toyota has faltered" agenda... And now that Edmunds seems to have latched on to the idea with articles like this one, you can bet the Toyota (and all other foriegn brands for that matter) naysayers will be joining on the import trash-fest in droves. Might as well bring on the "Buy American only, imports are evil" article next week just to maintain the momentum huh? |
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While the article seems to take aim at the FJ cruiser for supposed tire defects, the article doesn't seem to mention the investigation that is surrounding Hummer for a similar, if not more serious defect... http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/07/21/wheels-falling-off-hummers/ It probably wasn't mentioned because the implication here is Toyota's well earned reputation has been a 25 year old crock of BS. |
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Toyota today is kind of where GM was in the 70's. While it's easy to look back on just about any 70's car through modern eyes and criticize them, at the time GM was generally regarded as being the biggest and the best auto company out there. And for the longest time it seemed they could do no wrong. They were able to get away with building problematic, and sometimes downright crappy cars through most of the 70's and even a good deal of the 80's before it finally came back to bite them on the butt. Heck, as recently as 1985 7 of the top ten selling cars in America were GM names. Toyota has gotten very big these days, just as GM was in the 70's. And Toyota has had a few stumbling blocks recently, such as the 3.0 V-6 engine sludge issue, transmission controverseys, and complaints of cheapened interiors on '02+ Camrys and the latest Avalons, which tended to be more rattle-prone and sometimes had issues with parts breaking. However, Toyota seems more adept at being able to catch the problems earlier on, something that GM wasn't able to do. If Toyota starts to get fat and lazy and wallowing in their past glories like GM did, then I could see them suffering a GM-like fate. I don't think Toyota's management has quite the same culture, though. |
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Replying to: KarenS (Sep 07, 2006 7:37 am) Hyundai and Kia are really the only ones I see differently than I used to; I'm impressed by their latest vehicles. Oh, and Mercedes Benz too, negatively. They haven't fallen low in my eyes, but they were very, very high once upon a time and now they're not. |
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(my faves)I now am interested in Suzuki. Namely, the new Suzuki SX4. That small SUV will have 2WD FWD as the gas-saving mode of drive, with 4WD available and AWD as the everyday drive. All for $15,000 and it looks very attractive. I'm now interested in Suzuki, only seriously this time. This is the breakthrough rig for Suzuki, IMO, that blasts them away from the rest of the competition and officially draws my interest towards them. |
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You have got to be kidding me about the J.D. Power initial quality survey. J.D. Power is a joke. Initial quality..... I don't know anyone who buys a car for 30 days of use. GM car quality is terrible check Consumer Reports....more unbiased than J.D. Power. The new cobalt is one of the most unreliable vehicles out there. Even my dad a life time "buy American" recently bought his first Brand new vehicle......a toyota Sienna Minivan after years of buying Chrysler Minivans(moderate quality). I try and give credit where it is due and outside of the truck market I wouldn't buy an american vehicle. Even trucks are going to be seriously challeged in the full size category by Toyota. Nissan, Toyota, and Honda already make the best midsize pickups. Poor corporate management and corrupt unions hurt americans and the products that they build. Why is it that americans making japanese branded vehicles have better quality than American vehicles made by Americans. Better quality parts and engineering. American corporations cut too many corners on quality to try and produce it cheaper. Then they try and convince Americans through "marketing and advertisement" by telling them "we build the best cars". If they spent the advertisement and marketing budgets on building better vehicles they wouldn't have to convince people that they build the best cars. I still believe America has the best most educated labor force in the world but we also have some of the worst corporate management to go with it. Excuse me I have to go cut some joe schmoes pension while granting stock options to myself "back dated of course" in order to make the bottom line look better. Can I get the gov't to pick up my corporations underfunded pension plan....if so I can get a bigger bonus. one2mark |
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Replying to: KarenS (Sep 07, 2006 7:37 am) One company whose reputation has remained intact, indeed has gotten better and better over the years, is BMW. |
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